Each December my wife and I bring out an old advent calender and rehearse the story of Christ's coming by reviewing particular prophetic passages pointing to Christ's birth. We start on the first evening of December.
The kids gather anxiously after dinner on the couch to hear the scriptures and see the pictures that tell the true meaning of Christmas! After the second night, Leslie makes review questions each evening. She writes them on a piece of paper and cuts them into strips and quizzes the kids on the details of each nights' lesson.
It becomes a fun family Christmas celebration and learning opportunity to teach about Christ's coming, His advent and incarnation. It's the best time to worship as a family in our home. We read scriptures, answer the kids questions and sing old Christmas hymns.
The word "Advent" in Latin means "Coming". In many Christian churches throughout the world this is a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Christ's 1st coming. Churches throughout history celebrate the incarnation, that is... Jesus, the son of God taking on human flesh and becoming man (Phil 2: 6b- 11).
He in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
To aid in the instruction for these christian truths of the incarnation I have continually found the Westminster Confession of Faith extremely helpful:
Q. 22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul,(Phil 2:7) (Heb 2:14,17) being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her,(Lk 1:27,31,35) yet without sin. (2 Cor 5:21, Heb 4:15, 7:26, 1 Jn 3:5).
A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul,(Phil 2:7) (Heb 2:14,17) being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her,(Lk 1:27,31,35) yet without sin. (2 Cor 5:21, Heb 4:15, 7:26, 1 Jn 3:5).
Christmas is about Christ. His birth and His coming. Let us celebrate the incarnation of our Lord. Let us prepare our hearts and rejoice that a savior has been born, Christ the Lord.
Resources:
Desiring God, John Piper Blog: Advent and Incarnation
Westminster Confession
Bible Gateway
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