Celebrate the coming of Christ. Celebrate Incarnation. Celebrate Emmanuel.
For Unto Us a Child is born. Unto us a Son is Given. Isaiah 9:6-7
May this completed Advent be the start of a fresh, new journey with Jesus for the coming year, an unfolding experience of Emmanuel.
For the first nine days of Advent I have really enjoyed combining praying in color with #AdventWord. Everyday #AdventWord (adventword.org) sends an email with a new word and a reflection on the word. The chosen words are based on the Advent lectionary from year C. Most of them are familiar, returning Advent companions. But Sunday’s word jarred me and my thoughts went wild. The word was WILD. Instead of just drawing, I started writing:
WILD
Jesus tames the wild, but Jesus also wilds the tame. For people like me who seek the safe, easy, and comfortable way, he discomforts. I choose the path of the good-girl Christian. She’s the one who follows the rules, wants to be perfect, memorizes the Beatitudes and Ten Commandments, respects authority, doesn’t make waves, tries to please, goes to church every Sunday, smiles…. I don’t think Jesus objects to any of those things; they are good things– except if they get in the way of following Him. For me, it’s easier to follow rules. It’s hard to follow the Jesus who calls for wild, sometimes risky discipleship.
“I am the Way,” says Jesus. Possibly, the wild way, the unpredictable way. Jesus steers me off the 8-lane highway of comfort and conformity, asks me to unbuckle my seat belt, and takes me onto the narrow path through a forest of thickets, roots, and brambles. The only navigation tool is Jesus Himself. My mother warned me about men who said, “Follow me.” “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:14 NRSV). (But this is Jesus, mom, okay?)
He is the Way. Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness; You will see rare beasts and have unique adventures. These are the stunning words of the poet W.H. Auden. This wild Jesus who calls me beyond my familiar boundaries is the one I want to follow–but I am so afraid to do so.
Monday’s word was CRY.
CRY
I almost never cry. Not at funerals, not at weddings. Except recently, at the drop of a hat, at the movies, at pictures of my granddaughter, at funerals…. I have wondered: “Why all the crying? Did I have a stroke? Or is my heart actually softening?” In one of those strong, rare, inaudible voices I heard: “Doesn’t matter. Trust the tears.”
Leslie Lepage is also combining #AdventWord with a calendar template. Here are her visual prayers/meditations on the words.
Advent calendars are for adults and children. The calendar templates below offer a doable, simple discipline for each day of Advent. Instead of opening daily doors with pictures or retrieving small gifts or candies from pockets, these calendars mark the daily journey to Christmas with your prayers and drawings. The finished Advent calendar is a colorful reminder of what was in your head and on your heart each day. It is a record of the daily spiritual journey through Advent.
Here are four Advent calendar templates in both .pdf and .jpg form. Click on the words .pdf or .jpg below the version/s you want. Download first; then print. Feel free to share the calendar templates with others, for individuals or groups. Below the templates are ways to use them.
Note: I like to enlarge the 8.5″x11″ format to 11″x17″ card stock. It gives me more room to doodle and color and consequently more time and space with the person or word.
Advent 2017 Stained Glass Calendar–No dates .jpg or .pdf
Advent 2017 Stained Glass Calendar–With Dates .jpg or .pdf
Advent 2017 Creche Calendar—No Dates .jpg or .pdf
Advent 2017 Creche Calendar—With Dates .jpg or .pdf
Advent 2017 Tree Calendar–No Dates .jpg or .pdf
Advent 2017 Tree Calendar–With Dates .jpg or .pdf
Advent 2017 Box Calendar— .jpg or .pdf
Thanks to Cindy O. for the 2017 Box Calendar template and to Jack Jeter for his creche drawing.
Ways to Use the Calendar Templates
1) In a space or shape on the calendar, write the name of someone for whom you are praying. Doodle around the name, add color. Think of each stroke of color or each doodled mark (line, dot, arc, spiral…) as a wordless prayer. If words come to you as you draw and color, pray them. Squeeze them onto the calendar in the shape or along the margins if they feel important. When you have finished with your daily entry, say “Amen” or recite a short passage of Scripture appropriate to Advent like “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” (Psalm 27:1)
2) Read a daily Advent reflection or meditation. Choose a word from the reading that jumps out at you. Write it in the shape and start to doodle and color. Marinate in the word. What is the word saying to you? What does God have to say to you about the word? Listening + doodling+ coloring = praying. Keep a computer or notebook next to your calendar so you can write any insights or “ahas.”
3) Write and ponder an Advent word––prepare, wait, pregnant, hope, watch, darkness, longing, light…—as you doodle and color.
4) Since Advent is a season of hope, write something you hope for each day. Offer that idea to God as you draw, write, and color.
5) For smaller children, print the calendar on 11″x17″ paper and just let them color. Light a battery-powered votive candle and give them a quiet, secret place to work. The Tree template might be a simple one for a child to use.
Remember this is not supposed to be a great work of art. Enjoy the process. The words, marks, and color end up creating a beautiful tapestry in spite of your skill level! Advent calendars can also be just black and white. No color necessary. Here are some samples of completed Advent calendars from past years. Thanks to Cindy O. and Connie D. for their calendars.
This is one of those weird Advents when the third Sunday of Advent only marks the halfway point to Christmas. Because December 25 is on a Sunday this year, there is a whole week after the fourth Sunday of Advent until Christmas Day. My Advent calendar of words has only 15 completed ornaments of the 28 and yet I lit the third candle on the wreath today. The extra days are good news to me. I have just begun to settle into a daily routine of reading and drawing. Although Advent is a special time of attention and reflection, I also think it the dress rehearsal for how to make room and space for God in my life all year. It takes time to learn to take time. Advent gives me permission to learn how.
There are hints of December, Advent, winter, and Christmas in our house and neighborhood even without my intentional attempts at spiritual discipline and the staging of visual seasonal reminders. The holly in our front yard is full of berries and yesterday a mass of robins ate half of them in two hours. Usually their appearance means there will not be a single berry left when they depart. My interference with clippers in a desperate attempt to salvage some branches may have interrupted their annual feeding frenzy. I expect them to swoop down again soon and finish the job.
Our two Christmas cactuses are covered with buds. The younger one, the eight-year old on the left, has many blossoms and seems in a hurry to get to the finish line. The other, a plant I have had for 45 years, is full of buds, but moseying to maturity in its own time. Both plants seem to know of Advent’s arrival because they start their march to full flower every year at the end of November. It’s almost as if they are accompanying me on the Advent journey and saying, “Make way. Be not afraid. There is hope. Break forth.”
Advent calendars are for children and adults! Instead of opening daily doors with pictures or retrieving small gifts or candies from pockets, mark the day-by-day journey to Christmas by daily praying/drawing with a calendar template. When I draw, color, and doodle my own Advent calendar, I feel like I’m building something rather than tearing it apart. It is a countUP to Christmas, not a countDOWN. The finished Advent calendar is a colorful reminder of what was in my head and on my heart each day. It is a record of my spiritual journey through Advent. Note: I like to enlarge the 8.5″x11″ format to 11″x17″ card stock. It gives me more room to doodle and color and consequently more time and space with the person or word.
Here are four Advent calendar templates in both .pdf and .jpg form. One of the calendars has already been “doodled”, so you can just color and pray. Click on the words .pdf or .jpg below the version/s you want. Download first; then print. Feel free to share these with others, for individually or groups.
Ways to Use the Calendar Template
1) In a space or shape on the calendar, write the name of someone for whom you are praying. Doodle around the name, add color. Think of each stroke of color or each doodled mark (line, dot, arc, spiral…) as a wordless prayer. If words come to you as you draw and color, pray them. Squeeze them onto the calendar in the shape or along the margins if they feel important. When you have finished with your daily entry, say “Amen” or recite a short passage of Scripture appropriate to Advent like “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” (Psalm 27:1)
2) Read a daily Advent reflection or meditation. Choose a word from the reading that jumps out at you. Write it in the shape and start to doodle and color. Marinate in the word. What is the word saying to you? What does God have to say to you about the word? Listening + doodling+ coloring = praying. Keep a computer or notebook next to your calendar so you can write any insights or “ahas.”
3) Write and ponder an Advent word—–prepare, await, hope, pregnant, watch, darkness, longing,…—as you doodle and color.
4) Since Advent is a season of hope, write something you hope for each day. Offer that idea to God as you color and draw.
5) For smaller children, print the calendar on 11″x17″ paper and just let them color. Light a battery-powered votive candle and give them a quiet, secret place to work.
Here are examples of 2015 finished Advent Calendars:
Thanks to Cindy O. of Mostly Markers for creating the 2016 Box Calendar–with the oval in the center for Christmas Day. Notice her finished Box Calendar from 2015–the first one on the left.
Advent calendars are not just for kids! Instead of opening daily doors with pictures or retrieving small gifts or candies from pockets, adults and children can mark the day-by-day journey to Christmas by daily praying/drawing with a calendar template. When I draw, color, and doodle my own Advent calendar, I feel like I’m building something rather than tearing it apart. It is a countup to Christmas, not a countdown. At the end of the 20-some days, the finished Advent calendar is a colorful reminder of what was in my head and on my heart. It is a record of my spiritual journey through Advent.
Here are some examples of calendars from previous years:
Ways to use your calendar:
1) In a space or shape on the calendar, write the name of someone for whom you are praying. Doodle around the name, add color. Think of each stroke of color or each doodled mark (line, dot, arc, spiral…) as a wordless prayer. If words come to you as you draw and color, pray them. When you have finished with your daily entry, say “Amen” or a short passage of Scripture appropriate to Advent like “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” (Psalm 27:1)
2) Write and ponder an Advent word—prepare, await, hope, pregnant, watch, darkness, longing,…—as you doodle and color.
3) Since Advent is a season of hope, write something you hope for each day. Offer that idea to God as you color and draw.
Here are three Advent calendar templates in both .jpg and .pdf form. There is also a version of one of the calendars that is already doodled, so it is more like an Advent calendar coloring page. Click on the words .jpg or .pdf below the version/s you want. Download first; then print. I like to enlarge the 8.5″x11″ format to 11″x17″ card stock. It gives me more room to doodle and color and consequently more time and space with the person or word.
Thanks to Cindy O for the box calendar template for 2015 and for her finished Advent calendar from last year. Check out Cindy’s blog called Mostly Markers.
Thanks to Connie Denninger for her finished candle calendar. Check out her blog called Vintage Grace.
Here are six finished Advent calendars from five different people. Thanks to the four people who shared their calendars with me. Of course, I would love to see others.
This first two are from friends Cindy O and Connie D. Cindy used phrases and words associated with Advent. Check out her websites Mostly Markers and Mostly Markers–Cards. Based on a book by Sarah Hornsby called Jesus Be in My Christmas: Morning and Evening Meditations for Every Day of Advent. Connie’s words on the tree calendar complete the sentence “Jesus be in my ______.” Connie’s blog is called Vintage Grace.
The next pair is from Linda S. and her daughter. “My adult daughter and I worked individually on both sheets, alternating days, to create a shared positive focus for family and friends and their particular situations.”
The last two are mine. On the tree I prayed for people. On the box calendar I meditated on the words from Scripture associated with Advent. I love to refer to my calendar during Christmas. Each day reminds me of who or what I was thinking and praying about.
The weeks of Advent are far-spent, only four more days until Christmas. I have loved this Advent as I usually do, but it also has been too short. There are three meditation books I would still like to read and I have squandered my sitting-still/prayer time. But the days roll on and prepared or not, Christmas comes. More of signs of it are visible in my house than last week.
Psalm 89: 1-4 (NRSV)– one of the other lectionary readings
1 “I will sing of your steadfast love, O LORD, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
2 I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David:
4 “I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.'”
Here is the first week of my Advent tree calendar. On this calendar I pray for people and places–for healing, in gratitude, for restoration. I doodle, pray with words, let go of words, doodle, listen, pray more words if they come, and generally, try to be present to God and the person. (Note the addition of Advent lights on the tree.)
Here is the first week of the Advent box calendar. On this calendar I write an Advent word each day. I think about the word but also listen for what God or the word might say to me. Check out my friend Cindy O’s calendar on her website Mostly Markers. (Many years ago Cindy handed me beautiful, colored markers and gave me permission to doodle and draw poorly.)
It’s not too late to print a calendar and start the one-day-at-a-time countdown or countup to Christmas. Go to the Handouts page of this blog and find the list of calendar templates.
One of my favorite Advent traditions is planting bulbs in a clear container with stones and water. Potting soil or a potting medium will also work. Once the little roots get going, they will wiggle in and out around the stones. You can almost watch the plants grow. The plants, narcissus or amaryllis, are a live Advent calendar. By Christmas Day, there might just be some flowers springing forth.
The clear bowl on the left has just-planted narcissus bulbs. (I’ve been wondering what to do with my mother’s cut glass ice bucket). On the right is Claudette, a Gen X, forty year-old Christmas cactus, who seems to know just when Advent begins. She will continue to wear her pink blossoms until Lent.
The plants remind me of a favorite German Christmas carol called “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” written in the 16th century. The verse below was translated into English in 1894 by Theodore Baker.
Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.
“On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.” (Isaiah 11:10 NRSV)
