How to Celebrate Advent…for all ages

If you’ve been around here very long you know I love the Advent season. Though I didn’t know much about it growing up, it’s been a life-giving practice in my adulthood. If “Advent” is new to you, it’s simply the four week period leading up to Christmas. Churches often have a special scripture reading and light a candle each of the four Sundays before Christmas. Individuals and families might light candles on an advent wreath and read a daily or weekly devotional that prepares their heart to worship throughout the season.

Last year, I stumbled upon several incredible resources, and I have been waiting ALL YEAR LONG to share them with you! I have used them and loved them. Any of these resources will move you toward Jesus, and relight the embers of a love that might have grown dim through the year.

Daily Readings for Kids and Families

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name[image error] by Sally Lloyd Jones (

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Granted, it’s not a Christmas book. It’s not even a complete children’s Bible, but the subtitle says it all: “Every story whispers His name.” And so the author starts at the beginning and shows how each story in the Old Testament actually pointed to the coming of Jesus. If you begin reading the book on December 1, and read one story each night, on Christmas Eve you will finish with the story of the wise men bringing gifts to baby Jesus.

I don’t know if the publisher planned it that way or not, but it is my favorite Advent tradition. And this is the book where I make my boys humor me. I read it out loud to them. Because I’m the mom. (Watch for sale on Christianbook.com (Friday-Monday) when this full-color hard back is $5!!)

Daily Reading for Adults and Teens

Behold the Lamb of God[image error]: An Advent Narrative by Russ Ramsey (

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With artful storytelling and bits of biblical history sprinkled throughout, Russ Ramsey is a gentle theologian. In 25 short chapters, he draws from Scripture and looks “toward both wonder and ground-level detail…he brings to life the people, the places, and the earth-shaking significance of the greatest story ever told—the true tall tale of the coming of Christ.” (quote from the back cover).

This was what I read in December last year, and I’ve been waiting all year to share it! Mine is dog-eared and underlined.

 

A Remarkable Advent: Stories of the Ordinary People God Chose to Fulfill His Extraordinary Plan (FREE)

Sound familiar? This one is mine