Advent 2014 – Day 9
The Animals’ Christmas Eve by Gale Wiersum (for Arianna)
The Candle in the Window by Grace Johnson (for Ian)
I really enjoyed Ian’s story, though there were a couple spots that made me feel like I’d missed a page. Based on a story by Leo Tolstoy, it’s about a German cobbler who’s not really celebrating on Christmas Eve because he misses his wife and child. When special visitors put a candle in his window and tell him the Christ Child will visit homes with the candle, he gets excited and prepares to welcome Him. As the evening passes, several people in need stumble into his shop, drawn by the candle in the window. Full of joy in his anticipation of seeing the Christ Child, he generously gives to them, though by the end of the night he wonders if Jesus didn’t come because the cobbler had given away everything intended for Him. The mysterious visitors return and help put his heart at ease by reading to him from Matthew 25, explaining that whatever he did “unto the least of these,” he did for Christ.
The story lead to a good discussion with Ian about how we can give to Jesus by serving the poor. I’m thankful that our church has several ways we can be involved as a family in helping those in need. It makes it easier to talk about “giving gifts to Jesus” when the kids can make this connection.
In the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge we read the story of Jacob’s dream, and the boys enjoyed building ladders while we read from Jotham’s Journey.
Then we ended the night singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”