We have been talking with our kids to let them know that the twenty-fifth of December is not the only time that they can enjoy the advent season. So, like most families, we do Christmas-y things as a family all throughout the month of December. And I’m trying to point out to them that those things aren’t just build up to the main event, they are part of the main event.

  • This helps to avoid a big let down on December 26th, because it wasn’t all about a 24 hour period of time.
  • This helps because our kids see that Joy In Christ is not dependant on one event. Or one kind of event.
  • This helps because they learn that there are many celebratory paths that lead us to reflect on the good that happened because God became incarnate.

In any case, we were encouraged along these lines by what we read in a Caring Bridge update. The seven month old daughter of friends of our family has leukemia and has been in and out of treatments at the hospital since summer. Here’s the end of their last post.

… Also pray for Kevin and the kids at home and for all of us as we prepare for Christmas in many practical (and impractical, scattered, and hectic!) ways as we are very excited to give each other gifts and enjoy one of our favorite times of the year and give extra love and attention to the children… and we are longing to find some quiet to remember the wonder that God sent a Savior, Emmanuel… God with us. I want to deeply feel this myself and also share this good news with our children over and over again during this hard season in our lives.

This family wasn’t together at home on the day that most of us celebrated Thanksgiving. And it’s quite possible that they won’t be home together on Christmas Day. But that isn’t stopping them from celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. Quite the opposite. This hard time is causing them to be more intentional in sharing this joy with their kids.

And if they can do it during a time of Cancer, the rest of us should be able to do it during … normal times. So do it.

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