our Nativity begins its long journey to Christmas (with the help of the grandchildren)

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son…” – Luke 1:35

I’m not sure that there’s anything more magical than our five and seven-year-old grandchildren helping begin to decorate the house for Advent and Christmas.

Up in the attic digging out treasures. Stringing lights. Helping decide where things should go. hanging ornaments on the trees. Setting out the Nativity.

“Oh, grandmamma…” Beks said. “hanging the ornaments is so much fun. They are so beautiful.”

And Beks was in her element. Design, sparkle, bling, dainty little things, splashes of color, stories. There’s nothing quite like a five-year-old girl when it comes to making everything – the entire house – pretty.

All day Saturday was one long treasure hunt. And it culminated – after snack, after getting the pajamas one, after brushing teeth – with the Nativity. And with the setting of the scene the stories. Stories from when their mama was a little girl. Stories of the adventures our long-suffering olive wood characters have navigated over the years. Stories of shepherds, and wise guys, and angels, and barn animals; stories of Jesus – the greatest story ever told.

And it is fresh, brand-new, renewed – every day and in every way a wonderful adventure, the kind of Great Adventure that moves us into peace and possibility and good news. So much good news.

Our Nativity sits – this year – under the great and colorful angel, Peter Max’s Angel with Heart, a call to the contemporary and the cutting edge and the now, which is who Jesus is and who Jesus always will be.

So “Happy Sunday after Thanksgiving,” friends. May your gratitude run deep and may your journey toward Bethlehem and the story of your Christmas be brand new and overflowing with redemption and with promise.

– DEREK