Advent

It has been so much fun to go through the Advent calendar with Anna this year. Ours has little doors that she can open and some type of object is inside that represents our reading for the day. She cannot wait for Brad to get home at night. Almost right when he walks in the door she repeats "Advent calendar" over and over and she reaches for him so he can lift her up to open one of the doors. Of course, she is not as excited about sitting and listening to the reading and usually plays with something as we do that. I realize that at least for now, most of her excitement stems from getting to open and close the little door to see what is inside and not from preparing for the celebration of Christ's birth.

After witnessing this the first couple of days, I began to realize that I had been more focused on doing something neat for Anna's advent experience and had missed the point of it myself. I thought of how delighted God might be if I anticipated getting to read and reflect on the Advent verses and expressed as much joy in opening his Word as Anna did in opening each box. My sweet friend Jean introduced me to The Advent Door and A Holy Experience, blogs that have Advent resources that I have been using this year. Though I haven't done it every day, I look forward to finding some quiet time and seeing what the Lord wants to reveal to me. This year, perhaps because I am pregnant, the interaction between Elizabeth and Mary has really spoken to me.

I love it when I set out to teach that little girl something and God uses her to teach me an even greater lesson.