Saturday, November 30, 2013

Lost? The Real Reason for the Season

People often say that the holidays are really about the children - the joy of watching them visit Santa (or in our case the nativity scene at church), open stockings, and tear into presents. Many would claim it's pure joy to see their child open the toy they had been wanting for months on Christmas Morning.

We have a different kind of joy. Yes, I enjoy gift giving and I love to watch people open carefully wrapped gifts that I carefully selected. Yes, I enjoy the parties and family gatherings but most of all I enjoy the quiet time we spend as our little family reading Advent devotions before dinner and completing each day on the Advent Calender. I love, and find great joy in, teaching our daughter about the REAL reason for the season - our precious Lord and Savior's birthday!

Yesterday, we decorated for Christmas and we started the day with reading nativity stories to Annabeth and we allowed her to open her Little People Nativity from Grandmama-Mimi and Grandpa. She enjoyed talking about each person and animal as we unpacked them. She especially loved sliding Baby Jesus in the manger down the slanted roof of the stable. She even decided that our Baby Jesus should live on the roof.

Daddy and Annabeth with our new nativity  

She seemed to enjoy playing with her new toy and reading her Christmas books - most of which we only get out for the month of December. She loved putting up the tree decorating it with candy canes and then the "big reveal" when Daddy turned the lights on!

Our Sweet Nanners decorating the tree

We finished decorating, went our to dinner and despite the fact she demanded to take the Baby Jesus in the car with us, I wasn't sure she was really "getting" it. She can identify Jesus in her children's Bibles and says His name when we pray. But does she understand Him or see Him out of those contexts?

After dinner, we drove around our neighborhood to look for Christmas lights. One yard was beautifully lit with an array of colored lights, blowup figures, and moving reindeer. In the midst of all of that, our little girl saw one thing she thought was worth mentioning - "Ah! Baby Jesus!" 

We pray that she will come to know more and more about our dear Lord. We also pray that you, dear readers, will as well. If you are one of faith, we pray that it may continue to grow. If you are not a believer, we pray that the Lord will work in your heart this Christmas Season and always. 

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