Advent Week 3: The Magi & Faith

The third week of Advent began on Sunday, and at our church the children blessed us with a special presentation. The paraded down the main aisle handing out ornaments that reminded us of this week's theme, and then ended on stage singing We Three Kings. A CD and the congregation helped them out because We Three Kings is really not the most exciting of Christmas songs. D'arcy certainly doesn't know what a moor is... Here are some pictures I took on Sunday. D'arcy is standing with two of her favorite friends, Isabel and Catherine. Julian wasn't able to participate in the program since it was for age 3+ so he put on his own presentation, standing on his head.

 

 

For the third week of Advent we focused on the Magi who came from far away to seek out the child who was born King of the Jews. We read Matthew 2:1-12.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'" Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

And we sing We Three Kings (although if you notice in the scripture there isn't a reference to the number of Kings :) )

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to rein

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Pray'r and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav'n replies

Advent Week 2: John the Baptist & Mercy

The second week of Advent has already past, but I wanted to take the time to highlight what we focused on; John the Baptist & Mercy. At almost the same time as the birth of Jesus, another birth occurred that was rather unusual. A mother who was past the point of childbearing became pregnant with a baby who would one day announce the ministry of Jesus to the Jewish people. We spend this week reflecting on God's merciful plan to send his son to the world as the promised Messiah. John the Baptist was a key player in this plan.

We read Luke 1:57-66 & Luke 1:76-78.

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven.

And we sang O Come All Ye Faithful

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God's holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Santa

So, I just wrote about us celebrating Advent which the kids have been greatly enjoying. They've been playing with our kid friendly Nativity and pretending to read the story of the prophets from my Bible.
In the midst of all this Christ centered celebration, we had an interesting conversation with D'arcy about Santa. In past years, we've not perpetuated the concept of Santa...no gifts from Santa, no sitting on Santa's lap, not leaving cookies for Santa. However, we have allowed her to "pretend" that Santa exists in that we don't say, "Santa isn't real" every time she talks about him.
The other day, we were driving home from home group, and D'arcy starts telling us that she wants a Cinderella castle from Santa Claus because he gets you whatever you ask for. So we listen to her idea of Santa, and ask a few questions. Then we try to alter the conversation from what she wants from Santa to what Christmas is really about. Ultimately, though, she kept coming back to the fact that Santa is going to bring her what she wants on Christmas day.
As we were getting out of the car, I tell her that Santa isn't real, but it's ok to pretend. She says, "We'll see, mom. We'll just wait and see."
Yep, we'll wait and see. I'm not looking forward to that disappointment.

Advent: The Prophets bring Hope

This Christmas, I've gotten serious about incorporating Advent into our Christmas celebration. I want to instill in my children that Christmas is not simply Jesus' birthday. Instead, I want them to understand that this birth is a great mystery because on that day God became human. This birth was foretold by the prophets of old to Isreal, announced by the Angels to common shepherds, and sought out by the Magi of the East. The birth was for a purpose, not only to end for the salvation of all people, but to train us in the way we should live and to declare that the Kingdom of God is both here and to come.

This is a big job, no doubt. I'm incorporating some materials from our pastor with some materials from an awesome Children's curriculum called Godly Play to help my kids grasp the fullness of what Christmas is. I thought I would share the theme, scriptures, and song we are focusing on each week.

This week (Nov 30-Dec 6) we are remembering The Prophets from the Old Testament who declared to Israel that a King was coming. Today we read passages from Jeremiah and Isaiah.

Jeremiah 33:14-16
"'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.'"

Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

This brought great hope to the struggling people of Isreal. We sing the song O Come, O Come Emmanuel in celebration of this great news.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times did'st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

As we prepare our hearts for the mystery of Jesus' birth, we are glad to think back to the fulfilled promise given to the Israelites. This should reignite hope in us that the promise that Jesus will come again to fully establish the Kingdom of God will be fulfilled.

Parents and Pies

D'arcy's preschool has a special event each month. This month D'arcy's class invited the parents to the school for a special presentation and some pie. There will be no pictures for this blog as I did not bring my camera with me. I love taking photos, obviously. However, I'm conscientious about always being behind the camera. There are moments that are worth just experiencing. So with every event, I have to make a decision to take or not take the camera. I was probably the only parent there without a camera of some sort. In fact, one of D'arcy's friend's mom came in to the room, asked me to save her a seat, and told me she was going to run home to get her forgotten camera. Ten minutes and three preschool songs later, she arrived to learn she had missed the whole thing. In the frenzy to document the event, she missed it entirely. Thankfully, the kids did an encore after the pie.

I was also the only parent to not bring a pie. What a lame mom to not bring a camera or a pie! That was one of the hundred things I did, proudly, say no to this week. I'm looking forward to June when VLI will end, and I will be able to reevaluate all of my commitments.

Anyway, back to those Williams kids...D'arcy's class has a warning for all those turkeys out there. It comes in the form of a song.

Turkey, Turkey,
Run away, run away.
If you don't be careful, you will be a mouthful
Thanksgiving Day, Thanksgiving Day.

Tennesse Pics

 

 

 

 

To see more go to http://willowgrovephotography.zenfolio.com/p588171325.

Trip to Tennessee

This will be a long entry as we had a packed, fun filled week in Tennessee. Let me first start by thanking both my parents and Stephen's parents for helping us come by paying for a part of our plane tickets. Julian is now two so he has to have a seat so you can imagine that flying anywhere can get expensive quick. Flying with two kids on my own isn't a horrible experience. D'arcy and Julian are always asked if this is their first trip, and the answer is always a resounding NO as both have flown many times to many places. They are pros and are very good on the plane. They are extremely friendly, and never fail to make many friends along the way. The conversation usually goes something like this...
"Hi, My name is D'arcy, and this is my brother Julian."
Julian echoes in the background, "Yeah, my name Jewian."
D'arcy continues, "We are flying to Tennessee to see our Grandma and Grandpa. Where are you going? Will you be on our next flight? This is my new IPod. I'm listening to a princess story." etc etc etc.
So the problem with flying isn't the kids, it's the stuff. I have to bring my big camera bag, my laptop bag, toys for the kids, a carseat (key in keeping my sanity with a two year old who would easily wiggle out of a plane seat), and a double stroller on the plane. To get to my connecting flight, I'm pushing or carrying all of this plus two kids and a third on the way across the Dallas airport by myself. It worked, but it wasn't a pleasant stroll in the park.
Once we got to Tennessee, we got to see some of our very favorite people, Grandma & Grandpa Clark, Kristin & Addison Bedi, Laura Allen, Grammy & Poppy Williams, Uncle Alex & Meagan, Uncle Josh & Emily, Great Uncle D & Great Aunt Lauren, Max, and GG (Great Grandma/Georgia Grandma). Here are our top ten memories from the week:

1. Hearing Julian tell Stephen over the phone that he saw an elephant at the zoo, and that the elephant went the bathroom right in front of us. He thought that was funny and "silly".

2. Hearing D'arcy and Julian tell my parents who was running for President; D'arcy, "John McCain! Bob Barr!" and Julian follows with "Barack Obama!"

3. D'arcy listening to the tour guide headphones at the Hermitage (Andrew Jackson's Plantation) and promptly telling us that it says we should be careful when we pick cotton because if you do it all day your hands will start bleeding.

4. D'arcy restating that Andrew Jackson is dead on many occasions. She surprises me by how comfortable she seems with the idea of death. Although, she has told me on several occasions that she likes being alive.

5. Having D'arcy line up the Wilson/Williams family in a line after taking pictures to do a "parade". She was talking about having a parade for several days and she finally got one!

6. Watching D'arcy and Julian relate to their long distance family. They sure aren't shy with them. They wake up and immediately say, "I go see Grandma and Grandpa?"

7. Watching D'arcy make friends on the trip as described above.

8. Hearing D'arcy call Josh's new girlfriend by his old girlfriends name. This makes me giggle a little. (I need to insert here that we really like both current girlfriends very much!) She also gets Josh and Alex mixed up quite often...I even almost hugged Alex thinking he was Stephen. If you aren't paying attention this can easily happen.

9. Hearing D'arcy explain to Poppy that her Grandma Clark gives her Apple Jacks for breakfast when we visit her, and she likes this very much.

10. Walking in fall weather where there are actually leaves on the ground and a chill in the air. (Although, I'll admit that I was glad to get back to 75-80 degree weather)

We used my parents little camera at the beginning of the week, so I don't have those pictures yet, but I will post some of the pictures from our official Williams family photo shoot.