Two Days Until the Beginning of Waiting…

Two Days Until the Beginning of Waiting…

We started baking our Christmas cookies over the weekend in anticipation of this coming season. We’ve baked the same cookies for years and years now, filling our home with the warm aromas of cinnamon and spices and filling our minds with warmer memories of past years where we have done this.

In a world that has been constantly changing all around us at a pace, it is a relief for a moment to stop and do something familiar together. There are seasons in life when the Christmas season can wrap around us like a warm hug on a wintery night, giving us permission to slow, to connect with each other and our family story, and to reconnect with God’s story of grace.

It is now just two days until Advent begins and we begin journeying through this story of our coming King. 

What will this Advent season look like for you? What do you long for it to look like? I’m determined this year to spend each day with Jesus, fighting off the distractions, and doing all I can to dwell with Him in every circumstance that life brings. And on the days when I get harried and hurried and fail to live fully alive in Him, I’m going to brush it off, forgive myself and start the next day new.

Christmas and Advent is a permanent season in our calendar that gives us permission to dwell more closely with Jesus; Permission to do life with Him. Even the hard and harried bits of our lives where we feel overwhelmed and over stretched. Especially those bits. 

As John wrote well over a millennia ago…

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

Stop for a moment and breathe that statement in… God, taking on human skin, God determined to dwell with us, intent on making His home with us!

I just don’t want to miss Him in all my rush. I don’t want to whirl by in all my important busy-ness and miss seeing His face, His heart this season. I want to be able to say along with John…

“We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John1:14)

Join me this season in slowing down. Lets carve out a corner in our worlds to welcome the “Word made Flesh”, the story of God wrapping Himself up in human skin with all its frailties, intent on drawing close to us. This Christmas season gives us permission to change our routines, to make moments and memories together; Permission to live in His story of grace.

Just two days and our waiting begins!

Blessings,

Liz

 

PS- I have put the ‘Waiting Manger’ craft into our post box for you to find when you are ready. The printable instructions are just below the Advent Journey cards I sent you earlier. You’ll find both waiting for you HERE.

This ‘Waiting manger’ is a place to hold the words of His story this Advent, the story of our coming King. You may choose to create it all in one sitting or do each of the four parts slowly one at a time over the coming weeks of Advent as you prepare a place for the child born King. It is created from simple objects… mainly popsicle sticks and glue with other optional extras. And of course the Advent and Christmas journey cards that complement this project are also waiting for you in our post box.