why I'll never come up with the perfect set of advent readings (and what we do instead)

This year, by accident and attrition, I discovered the perfect set of advent reading for our house. It's called - wait for it! -

"Read a passage about Jesus
a few nights a week". 

It was going to be so much better. The number of times I've tried to create a perfect set of advent readings!

I draw up columns. I list passages. I sort them into different kinds of readings: the big-story-of-the-Bible kind. The prophecies-pictures-and-names-of-Jesus kind. The nativity-story kind.

Then, overwhelmed by the number of passages, the necessity of making dozens of choices, and my own perfectionism - I always want to include everything! I'm terrible at making decisions! I'll never get it right! - I give up.

So there will be no perfect set of advent readings coming from me. Instead, use Wendy's or Meredith's. They are very good.

Or you can do what I do. Because the truth is, no 24-day reading plan ever works for us.

My husband is always away for parts of December. Like every other Australian university ministry wife widow, the time leading up to Christmas brims with the usual chaos (right now I'm drowning in it) plus an absent husband. If anyone is going to do advent readings when he's away, it's me. He's back; but last week, they didn't even happen.

Ever tried to catch up on 10 passages at once? We never do make it to Jesus' birth in time for Christmas. We're left hanging, somewhere between prophecy and fulfillment.

So here's what we're doing this year.

After dinner, we grab the Bible. We find a prophecy about the coming of Jesus. We read it. We briefly discuss it. We pray.

On another night, it might be the opening chapters of Matthew or Luke. We read it. We talk about seeing God's promises in action. We pray.

And that wonderful wooden advent calendar I bought years ago? Once, I looked for all kinds of candy-ish goodness to stuff into those tiny cupboards, but I've discovered that mini packs of Mentos fit (almost) perfectly. Boring, but easy. And that's all. No print-outs of advent readings curled inside this year.

Defeated by advent calendar readings, and all the trimmings of a Homemaker 101 Christmas, we do it our way.

a question for you - what do you do with kids at Sunday School on Christmas day?

Here's a question for you from my friend Meredith. 

She asks,

I'm wondering if anyone out there has some good ideas of things to do with kids at church on Christmas morning - not for a kids' talk in church but an activity to do with them when they go to their "Sunday School" space. 

It's not the easiest time. Often the kids are tired after a late "I couldn't get to sleep" night and an excited early start. Some have opened their presents and want to get back home to them and others have to wait until after church and so want it all to go very quickly. 

I'd be interested to hear what others have done (or what they have noticed their kids were doing while they were in church) on this day. The last couple of years I have made simple Christmas decorations - one to take home and put on the tree and one to give to someone in the congregation. 

I'd love to hear what others do.

Please comment here.

Christmas ... and goodbye for now

Hi everyone! Just letting you know that I probably won't be writing much for a month or so. Summer is here and it's time for a break with my family.

May God help you to rejoice in his gift of Jesus this Christmas. Here's a quote from JI Packer to help you do just that:

It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. ‘The Word became flesh’ (Jn. 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation. JI Packer

image is by mufan96 at flickr

have you room for Christ? - Charles Spurgeon

When all persons of the house of David were driven to Bethlehem, the scanty accommodation of the little town would soon be exhausted. The stall of the ass was the only place where the child could be born. Here, in the stable, was the King of Glory born and in the manner was he laid.

Have you room for Christ?

"Well," says one, "I have room for him, but I am not worthy that he should come to me." Ah! I did not ask about worthiness; have you room for him? "Oh! but I feel it is a place not at all fit for Christ!" Nor was the manger a place fit for him, and yet there was he laid. "Oh! but I have been such a sinner; I feel as if my heart had been a den of beasts and devils!" Well, the manger had been a place where beasts had fed. Have you room for him? Never mind what the past has been; he can forget and forgive. It matters not what even the present state may be if you mourn it. If you have but room for Christ he will come and be thy guest.

'Tis all I ask. Your emptiness, your nothingness, your want of feeling, your want of goodness, your want of grace — all these will be but room for him. Have you room for him? Oh! Spirit of God, lead many to say, "Yes, my heart is ready." Ah! then he will come and dwell with you.

From Charles Spurgeon's No room for Christ in the inn (some language modernised) HT Nancie Guthrie Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus.

image is by at flickr

what I'm reading: the Spirit, Jesus' limelight

If I had to sum up what I believe about the Holy Spirit (apart from the fact that he's a member of the Trinity, and works in our hearts to bring us to Jesus) it would go like this:

• the Spirit works in our lives through the Bible, the word of God - when we hear it, when he brings it to mind, when we speak it to others


• the Spirit's role is to point away from himself and to point to Jesus, to bring glory to the Father and the Son

It's the second point that Piper explores in this quote, which I came across while reading Nancy Guthrie's Come Thou Long Expected Jesus in the lead-up to Christmas:

When Jesus promised the Spirit (in John 16:14) he said, "He will glorify me"...The Spirit is shy; he is self-effacing. When we look toward him, he steps back and pushes forward Jesus Christ...

If we look away from Jesus and seek the Spirit and his power directly, we will end up in the mire of our own subjective emotions...Many of use know what it is to crouch on the floor and cry out to the Holy Spirit for joy and power, and experience nothing; but the next day devote ourselves to earnest meditation on the glory of Jesus Christ and be filled with the Spirit...

Christian spiritual experience is not a vague religious emotion. It is an emotion with objective content, and the content is Jesus Christ. The shy member of the Trinity does mighty work, but he never puts himself in the limelight. You might say he is the limelight that puts the attributes of God the Father and the person of Christ into sharp relief.

From John Piper "Conceived by the Holy Spirit" in Nancy Guthrie's Come Thou Long Expected Jesus pages 29-30.

image is by at flickr

our Jesse Tree

Yesterday was the first of December, and I seem to have missed the date when it comes to starting our Jesse Tree. Every year I fill the little drawers above with a Bible reading on a slip of paper, a few small lollies and a nativity figure, and we open one a day leading up to Christmas. This year, disorganisation got the better of me.

I generally use readings that I came up with - an Old Testament story, a promise or prophecy, and a New Testament reading - but I wanted something different this year. So I sat at the computer last night and looked for some resources.

If you, too, are wondering what to read with your kids leading up to Christmas - and if you are also late organising it! - the best printable resources I found were by Wendy:

• Birth of Jesus



• Genesis to Jesus

They look great, don't they? I think I'll use the first one this year, as it's a little different to what we've done in recent years. Thanks, Wendy!

If you want more ideas for creating a Jesse Tree, check out 168 hours.

happy Christmas!

That's our Christmas tree. You can barely see the tree for the decorations.

There are decorations we've made - decorations which were made for us - decorations we've bought - decorations from my childhood - decorations which were given to us. A glorious conglomeration of unmatching things! And every one, as my son said this year, with a special memory attached.

It's been a lovely and hectic time leading up to Christmas in our house, with most of the usual traditions. We put up our tree and nativity scene. We went to Carols by Candlelight, and the kids learned to play some carols on the piano. We read about how Jesus fulfils all of God's promises as we opened the doors in our Jesse advent calendar.

I also started a new Christmas tradition just for me. I've been reading the early chapters of Luke, and I'm stunned once again by the glory of the Saviour come to earth. It's been so encouraging that I'd like to follow Nicole's example and read something about the birth of Jesus in the weeks leading up to Christmas every year.

I'll be back blogging sometime in January. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the next few weeks' posts from the in all honesty archives. I'm thinking of you all, and praying that you have a blessed and happy Christmas, as you celebrate the greatest gift of all: the gift of God's own Son.

lead us not into (Christmas) temptation

The side mirror on our car got smashed last week. Okay, okay, I admit it - I smashed the mirror reversing into our slightly opened gate. I think it was the wind's fault for blowing the gate open. Or mine for not noticing. Whatever.

There are things about this time of year that really aren't good for me. I mostly avoid shops, because that's the only effective strategy I've found to overcome a ten year addiction to spending. I go to department stores twice a year, once for winter clothes for the family and once for summer clothes. That keeps me safely out of the way of temptation.

Except for at Christmas time.

I can resist temptation during the first Christmas shopping trip. By the second trip, and certainly by the third, shopping gets under my skin. Things I wouldn't have dreamed of buying a week ago suddenly seem perfectly reasonable at the price. I buy things we don't need and don't really want. The pile of gifts under the tree gets larger.

It's an odd way to celebrate the birth of the One who gave up everything and made himself nothing, who exchanged his riches for our poverty, so that he could give his life for us (Phil 2:5-11).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was heading south to buy a new side mirror for the car the other day. I was aware that en route was a shopping centre where I'd seen a very cute jacket that my son didn't need. My wheels were about to turn towards the shopping centre, until I realised that somehow I'd passed the turn-off - one I'd never missed before. I comforted myself with the thought that I still had time to go to the shops on the way home.

I found myself wandering through the wilds of an unfamiliar suburb, fathoms deep in bumper-to-bumper traffic, lost on the wrong part of the map, trying to find the Toyota parts shop. After three quarters of an hour of increasing tension - I was running late for a school pick-up - I found the shop down an obscure side street, bought the mirror, and drove to school with no time to spare for a detour to the shops.

And that's how God used heavy traffic and a misread map - of all things! - to keep me from a choice I knew to be sinful.

One small example of God's severe mercy. One thing not bought that we didn't really need. One sinful habit unfed, at least on this occasion, and growing that little bit weaker in consequence. One tiny taste of my heavenly Father's loving discipline (Heb 12:7-11). One renewed commitment to spend less on us and more on others. One answered prayer - a prayer I hope to be praying again in 11 months time:

Our Father in Heaven, lead us not into (Christmas) temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matt 6:9, 13)

Amen.

images are from wockerjabby and Fabi Dorighello at flickr

happy Christmas!

I hope you have a happy and blessed Christmas today, and rejoice in God's gift of his only Son - a baby who would grow up to die in our place so that we can be forgiven when we put our trust in him, and rise from the dead so that we can have eternal life.

Christmas at our house

Here's a few snapshots of Christmas at the Williams' house. I thought you'd like to see how we celebrate Christmas!

A celebration of family traditions
Every year the kids and I make a Christmas village. It's a 3D jigsaw, and every child has one house to make. I grew up with a cardboard village we put up at Christmas time, so it's a tradition for me - and fun for them.





A celebration of family memories
One family tradition which I adore and Steve tolerates for my sake (he doesn't like pine needles around the house!) is a real Christmas tree. The kids and I go to the local nursery and pick out the most beautiful tree, Steve helps us put it up, and we decorate it together.

What's really special about our tree is that every decoration has a memory attached. Some are from my family home. Some I made as a child. Every year, the children make more. Every year, I buy one or two.

As we hang them on the tree, the memories emerge: "Remember the year we made those windows out of beads? Remember when Lizzy made those stars? Remember how that sequinned star was one of our first Christmas decorations? Remember the year Jenny sewed that angel for me?"

A celebration of God's salvation
This year, I designed a Jesse Tree to make in our Sunday School class (I'd like to do a bit more work on it, and share it with you next December). Every day (or every 2nd day!) Steve and I tell the kids the next part of God's story of salvation, read a promise about Jesus, and look at a verse from the New Testament showing how Jesus fulfils both story and promise.



For a long time, I've wanted one of those wooden Christmas scenes with drawers for the Jesse Tree verses and ornaments, so I was excited to find one on sale a month ago. In the drawers go the Jesse Tree verses, some lollies, and a little figure for the nativity scene.

A celebration of Jesus
Our big nativity scene has been collected piece by piece over many years. What a pleasure it is every year to open the boxes, unearth the precious pieces from their polystyrene packing, and arrange them on our shelf!

Our nativity scene is a daily reminder that Christmas is all about Jesus: God's gift of his only Son, God in human form, living with us, and dying in our place to bring us eternal life.

.

heavenly choirs sing

Joseph walks past leading Mary, clad in traditional blue robes, her legs uncomfortably sticking out straight to the sides on the barrel-shaped donkey, like one of those balancing tricks with two forks and a cork wobbling precariously on the rim of a wine glass.

They settle into the stable with absurdly pleased looks on their faces, like any proud new parents cradling their first child. Their tiny black-haired baby looks around sleepily, completely unaware of his (her?) starring role as the divine representative. Joseph whittles a piece of wood, as any good carpenter would, adding his own small verisimilitude (had to look that one up) to the occasion.

A very small green-clad wise man lurches past, clinging white-knuckled to a towering camel, like an absurdly tiny cherry on top of a huge, wobbling cream cake, with an anxious and sea-sick look on his face, as if he was wishing he'd volunteered to be the inn-keeper.

An enthusiastic shepherd, all red bouncing curls and wildly gesturing hands, exclaims at an imaginary angel choir, accompanied by two extremely dour shepherds looking determinedly at the ground and studiously ignoring his gesticulations. No sheep accompany them: I assume sheep are harder to lead than camels and donkeys.

Our 4 year old looks up in confusion, wondering why the sky is innocent of angels, and why there is no "bright light shining", only a sliver of moon and a few reluctant city stars peering from an edge of grey cloud.

Soloists in a dazzling array of colours lead the familiar carols. A Barbie-doll platinum blonde in elegant blue silk harmonises with a slender teenager in ruched peach taffeta, a curly-haired brunette in funky green polyester frills belts out a jazz number, and a woman in black sprinkled with tiny dots of sparkling silver shimmies across the stage. I reflect on how the tiny Christ child grew up to die for all shapes, sizes and stylistic preferences of human being.

And here are the heavenly beings Thomas has been looking for, even if they're not in the heavens tonight: backlit, white-robed angels of both genders appear mysteriously out of clouds of dry ice, raise their arms theatrically to heaven and praise God with heart-felt and fervent "hallelujahs".

It's that time of year again (it seems to come around remarkably quickly) when mum, the kids and I attend "Come Celebrate", the annual carols by candlelight put on by the local churches of Whitehorse, set snugly in Melbourne' Bible belt, and keen to explain the true meaning of Christmas to thousands of people nursing sore tail bones as they perch awkwardly on rugs on the dry, prickly grass of an Australian summer.

Thomas (4) enjoys "the songs, the icecreams and baby Jesus", Ben (7) loves "the sausages and the songs that I know", Lizzy (9) likes "everything", and Andrew (1) is too little to clamber about while we sing to another long ago baby.

As for me, the music is glorious, the children's choir cute, the "Hallelujah chorus" sends shivers down my spine, and who can resist the traditional sight of thousands of candles swaying to and fro (come on, own up), not to mention the key change in the third verse of "Silent night".

I've never attended such an enthusiastic, professional, unembarassed (and unembarassing) evangelistic event before. The evening is a great example of soft-sell pre-evangelism in an accessible, inviting form. And although I would have loved to hear how the Christ child grew up to die for us, at least people are directed to local churches, or to the friend who invited them, to find out more.

An event of this size has an interesting relationship with the secular world.

The mayor, eager to be associated with this successful and seasonal occasion, is nonetheless careful to maintain a tolerant distance. He acknowledges the original owners of the land (now there's a case of too little too late), mentions the importance of driving safely over the Christmas period, and welcomes the various "faith-groups" to the evening (I suppose it's politically incorrect to say "Christian", "church" or "Jesus" in a speech if you're a mayor, which makes me glad I'm not a politician).

The event is sponsored by a local real estate organisation, by all accounts (according to them, at least) from the generosity of their hearts as they get into the Christmas spirit. Their annual Christmas lights competition is clearly motivated by a love of eco-friendly energy (they promise to fund wind-generated electricity to the amount of the most electricity hungry Christmas lights display, another interesting case of too little too late).

The compere, Dennis Walter, well known for hosting such events (as well as for being discovered on Young Talent Time) belts out "O Holy Night" with passion, conviction and a stirring baratone, although, perhaps more used to the secular version of these occasions, he becomes a little stilted when called upon to pronounce such words as "we celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, God's gift of the baby Jesus."

But it's great to hear Santa, his loosely-attached shiny synthetic beard wiggling up and down with every word, passionately preaching the gospel (the best Christmas gift of all, and apparently the reason he got his gig in the first place).

I'm intrigued to hear a wide variety of Christian greetings: the non-Christian presenters wish us a "happy and safe Christmas" and a "successful New Year", while the Christian presenters hope we will have a "happy and blessed Christmas". Two completely different world views and sets of values in miniature.

Give me "blessed" over "successful" and "safe" anytime. Safety and success are wonderful gifts of God, but I would rather be nestled safely in the hands of God during a Christmas car crash or a poverty-stricken year than remain secure without him. Thank God for the baby given at Christmas who makes this possible!

Have a happy and blessed Christmas, won't you.

our virtual Jesse tree

This year I'm finally getting around to doing something with the kids I've been planning for years: a Jesse tree in the days leading up to Christmas. A Jesse tree is similar to an advent calendar, except instead of a Christmas picture and a chocolate, every day we read a Bible passage and the kids get a lolly to make it fun (leading to lots of seasonal peace and joy on earth: "I want the strawberry lolly!" "No, I want strawberry!" "But I don't like pineapple!")

You're also supposed to hang up appropriately themed Christmas decorations to go with each Bible passage, but I haven't got that far. Instead, I created a virtual Jesse tree, courtesy of facebook: every day a growing gift or hatching egg appears on my profile, accompanied with a Bible verse and a passage to read out. Have a look at my facebook profile and click on the eggs and growing gifts if you want to see the themes and verses.

We started on December 1st with the story of creation, and how God made the world through Jesus, accompanied with a picture of a frog on a Christmas ball (well, frogs were part of creation, weren't they?)

Day 2 brought the story of the first sin, and a growing gift of caramel apples (yes, I know the forbidden fruit wasn't an apple, but you try finding the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on facebook).

On the 3rd day we hatched a dove from an egg, read the story of the flood, and talked about how Jesus saves us from God's judgement.

Day 4 brought a sunflower with a baby's face, and the story of baby Isaac. We read out God's promise of people, land and blessing to Abram, and talked about how these were fulfilled in Jesus.

We're having a lot of fun, and hopefully the kids are becoming familiar with some Biblical theology, as well as earning a free trip to the dentist. I'm trying to teach them how God's saving plan through history leads to Jesus, and how he is the fulfilment of all God's promises.

One of these days I would like to create my own version of the Jesse tree, with a story from Biblical theology and a relevant description of Christ (good shepherd, the lamb of God, the suffering servant) every day. If I ever get around to it, and if I'm still blogging, I will post it here so you can read it. Until then, our virtual Jesse tree will have to do.

Lots of versions of the Jesse tree are available on line, but some are a little odd, so check the Bible references carefully. Until I create my own, we are taking ours from Kent and Barbara Hughes, Disciplines of a godly family, pp.162-88.