Sometimes My Children Suprise Me

I have four boys ages 20, 18, 13, and 6. Their whole life we have used an Advent Wreath to help keep them focused on the real meaning of Christmas. It gives us 4 weeks or more to concentrate not on gifts and glitz but rather the gift God has given us in Christ. I love the time we spend; it's my favorite part of Christmas. On the other hand as we were getting to the end of Advent I got to thinking that maybe the older boys were getting too old to want to participate anymore. I could see how after so many years it might get boring. That thought saddened me, but I had decided that my youngest enjoyed it and need the lessons he could learn through the process. So, even though we only had a couple nights left, I packed up our wreath to take with us to my mothers house to continue to use on last two nights before Christmas.

The first night we were there my youngest fell asleep early and I thought that I wouldn't bother the older ones with lighting the candles since he was asleep. That was my plan. Imagine my suprise when my 18 year old calls me to come light the candles. I got into the my mothers breakfast room to find my 13 year old had carried the wreath in and was setting it up on the table. My mother joined us and I was a little embarrased that we were so loosely organized. Not that it was any different than any other night; I just would rather she thought I had things a little more together. It really bothers her sometimes that I'm not more structured, but that's who I am and that's how things go in a house with three teenage boys.

I asked who would like to light the candles, then after they were lit I read the nights verses. Next I asked who would like to pick the song, who would like to pray, and who wanted to blow out the candles. It's rather disorganized but we have lots of laughing and real worship. Everyone who's around is pulled in to participates, even my mother; she picked the song. It can't have been too bad though because she made sure to be there the next night and Christmas morning.

It really suprised me that the boys, as old as they are, still wanted to have the Advent Wreath be part of their Christmas. I don't know why I felt they didn't. I had never asked one way or the other. I just assumed. Bad mistake. It was a lesson I really needed.

The other thing the Lord taught me this Christmas was that perfect cookies are not important. My youngest wanted to help me with the cookies this year and I nearly told him no because I wanted them to look pretty and he was only six and wouldn't do them as well as I wanted. Thankfully the Lord grabbed me up short right away and hit me with the thought "What's more important, perfect cookies or perfect memories?" The Lord doesn't care if we have magazine cover homes with perfect cookies, perfect decorations and perfect tables. He's more interested that our children and the people we come in contact with are taught love. He doesn't want our children to think of this as a time of year containing nothing but stress as we try to impress everyone we come across. He wants them to see love in action, he wants them to hear about the depth of his love for us.

I sometimes think that if the early Christians saw all the hoops we jump through at this time of year they would stand and shake their heads sadly. They would be much more impressed with children that run to bring in a wreath and set it up so that they can hear again the story of God's love for them. It would make them smile that they want to worship Him for the proof His word gives down through the ages of that love in action. I know one thing for sure, God is certainly more impressed.