As I was watching the youth and adults engage with my children on Sunday, I started thinking about the times I spent as a child making special crafts, writing messages, posing for pictures, and hanging around with the other kids waiting on their parents to be done with their tasks...and done talking. Those slow moments stuck with me: questioning the meaning of the tree ornaments, troubleshooting how to get the wreaths in the right position, running to get the pizza, coloring and drawing while we wait to eat the pizza, and hearing the stories of Christmas pageants from long ago. I don't necessarily remember learning a lot of facts or deep concepts of theology, other than learning the word "Chrismon." It's more of a knowing the feeling you get from being around people you love and people who love you. It's a feeling of being captivated in one task at a time, maybe even talking with one person at a time. These connections make lasting memories on children and adults, and when we can set aside time to do these things and we bring in an awareness of the Holy Spirit, this moment becomes a connection with God.
Choosing to set aside time to meet with God is called a "Spiritual Practice." In other words, we make a practice of meeting with the Spirit. Choosing to intentionally celebrate Advent and make preparations for Christmas is choosing to accept a spiritual practice of making memories. These cultivated memories become the foundation of our faith, providing us with a reservoir of strength during challenging times. In our fast-paced lives, we often juggle multiple activities simultaneously. Whether at work, school, social events, or even at home with family, we strive for efficiency or entertainment by multitasking. For those of us in church leadership or in a season of parenting, we are even multi-tasking during worship: the sound technicians and our music leaders go up and down the stairs multiple times, our children's ministry leaders are involved with the children and making sure they get where they need to go, parents spend their energies getting the children involved, and Audra, my liturgist and I are staying alert to keep everything flowing and to remember the many announcements we need to share! So, events like the Advent Workshop and the Hanging of the Greens slow down the pace and provide time that we can engage with people as we complete the tasks.
One of the Advent Devotional materials on our pickup table is a coloring sheet. You can color or use Zentagle meditation to complete the designs with words and images to guide your faith. Many have already taken the daily word cards, but we will have more weekly devotional booklets and coloring sheets available on Sunday. I look forward to seeing you in worship, at the Living Windows, or hanging around simply waiting or "chilling" with our church family, as we savor these experiences.
In our sermon series and in the materials for devotion and Sunday School, we will be viewing the advent season "From the Manger." So often we focus on the journey up to the manger or our many secular Christmas traditions, and we don't get to really think about or visualize the meaning of this remarkable moment in the whole scheme of our lives and theology.
So, I hope to see you this Advent Season, and together, we can tell the story of Good News for ALL People "From the Manger."
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