We went to church last Sunday. We actuallly made it past the children's sermon this time despite the boys outward disagreement of who got to play with Action Chugger during the service. You see, usually when we go to church it goes like this: we arrive late to miss announcements. No need to waste Eric and Noah's young boy short attention span on announcements. We sit down shuffling who sits where, try to sing a hymn, and then they go up to the alter for the children's sermon. They LOVE the children't sermon.
Today Noah got to place the sheep in the nativity scene and Eric got to bring Joseph along his journey across the room. After the children's sermon, the children are invited to a play room with Birdie. Noah and Eric have outgrown the play room and want nothing to do with it. I am lucky to get through the readings let alone the sermon before these boys need to move their active bodies. So I usually feel satisfied with the lesson they have received and we retire to the backyard where we play kickball until community coffee hour which is perfectly aligned with snack time.
Today we made it through the entire service! Being it was the fourth Sunday in advent, the 4th candle was lit. After all my years going to church with my mom and watching the candles being lit, today I actually took in what they meant. Hope, peace, joy and love. Whether or not you believe in Jesus or even God for that matter, these four things are something everyone can strive to believe in and celebrate over the holiday. It is hope, peace, joy and love that bring us together. I was touched today by the sermon and that "belief" is faith in something even though logic, knowledge and science can't make sense of it. Humanity can not survive without hope, peace, joy, and love. Yet, it takes faith to accept them into your way of being because they come with uncertainty, unanswered questions. Hope, peace, joy, and love often defy logic, yet everyone needs them.
Christmas is the celebration of our Savior, our belief, our faith in all things good in this world all centered around the birth of a child. To me it through our children we learn to accept hope, peace, joy and love into our life. As adults we must re-ignite the child within us so we can be parents. We jump into parenthood with all its uncertainty and accept the challenges. This is true faith in action. There is a Carter's ad that says when a child is born, so is a new mom. We learn side by side with our children. As the grow into themselves we grow into our parenting-selves.
For this Momma it is through all children I can see true hope, peace, joy and love.
This is my understanding of what Christmas is. Bless the birth of all children.
