Advent Day 3 - Special Christmas Cards

Day 3 for Advent.  We are trying to live purposeful, focused on the joy of being "Advent people" -as Ann Voskamp puts it so clearly in her book The Greatest Gift, particularly this month of all months.
Clearing out the clutter of our minds and shutting out the flashing lights, ringing bells and sales signs everywhere.  Trying to create a purpose filled experience today for the kids - Solagratiamom style.

We started our day with our Jesse tree, reading our devotion and hanging our beautiful ornament.  Discussion today was focused on the love story of Creation.  It's a topic hard to grasp and questions like "how can God not be made and exist always?" were asked.  I gave a few explanations and nothing seemed to resonate.  So I thought of an analogy sitting in front of me.  I held up our Thanksgiving jar (I hadn't put it away yet) with a lid.  I said "Let's all pretend we are jars.  This jar and all jars like it are made with lids that twist on.  Along comes a human being.  Human beings don't have lids.  If this jar could speak, the jar might ask "how can you not have a lid?  how do you hold what's inside of you without it all coming out since there is no lid to keep it all in?" It seems silly and simple.  However like the jar we are so far removed in our ability to comprehend and to understand the mind and make up of God in His fullness - that our questions are like the jars would be.  Simple, limited and lacking in true understanding.  We, like the jar with a lid, are made to function in a certain way.  We can't understand when something doesn't function as we do.  It boggles our minds to think something isn't created and just "existed" because we are created, like this jar, we had a creator who gave us a purpose and a specified design to function within that purpose.  Thinking God couldn't just exist because you can't understand how that would work, is as silly as it is for this jar to think you are not real because you lack a lid."

During the day we moved on to making Gingerbread men and Christmas Cards.  I purposely gave the girls just 3 cards each and 2 gingerbread men.  I told them these were going to be "special" Christmas cards they were going to make and they needed to think really hard about who those 5 people would be and who would get what sort of designed card or gingerbread man.  It was neat to see their minds work as they decided which person should get the one with baby Jesus because they didn't know Christ and they hoped it might make them want to or to say that this card design was going to be silly like a favorite Uncle.

I set out the materials and let them come up with their own designs.  I guided them very little and they did a really good job!  My favorite was the Jesus cards.  :)

I hope your day 3 was a day of reflection and focus on the Gift to come....