St Gabriel Windows

St Gabriel Windows
Photocopy c. 2013 Jamie Laubacher

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Advent Anticipation

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is to stay home and start the morning with me in the kitchen and the children watching the Macy’s Day Parade – 85 years strong – wow.  My husband preferred to not travel on Thanksgiving, or go to both parents’ home, because he drives SO MUCH all week and doesn’t have many days off at all for much of anything.  He works Saturdays at his regular job – and in retail in the evenings, and you know retail doesn’t take time off.

So on Thanksgiving we enjoy the entire day together as a family, and toward the end of the day, we begin to decorate for Christmas.  We opted for a small slimmer tree (it already has lights on it), and it is less fuss for the children to easily and successfully decorate with charm.  We have our nativity and Advent Wreath ready.  Tomorrow marks the first day of Advent, and we have a small purple taper candle waiting within the wreath to be lit. 

I am grateful for my church, Christ’s visual church on earth for all the spiritual helps it provides to improve our spirituality during this hard yet joyful journey.  I am not a shallow fleeting person in the least, and the more breadth and depth of spiritual enrichment and knowledge at my disposal, the better.  Christ himself was not shallow by any means, and he shows us in the gospels the deep spiritual and physical demands a soldier of Christ must take on. 

This Advent I anticipate and wait to honor the Christ who was born into a family first before accepting his ministry at large in the name of His Father.  Knowing Jesus was born a baby and into a family certainly makes our Lord less lofty and more accessible to any humble person. 

May God bless you richly this Advent Season!

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