19 Dec On Santa, Advent, and Victories

Advent – the Christmas season – is my favorite time of year. Mostly because I am a storyteller, and this is the greatest Story ever told. I am in a daze of wonder for the whole of December, star-stricken by the Divine humanity.

Sometimes I write about Mary, sometimes about the Shepherd and the shepherds. I’ve lost babies, and announced the coming of new ones. Four of them spent with the Husband a half a world away. And all of it a gift, wrapped in the coming of the Light of the World, bearing hope, and victory over death.

This season, I want to tell you of Advent, and victories.

I am in the thick of it this parenting season. And there is a veritable army writing on how to “do” Christmas. Santa or not? {Not.} Presents, or not? {Presents, but fewer-ish.} Advent calendar or not? {Depends on the day and my sanity levels.} (Read here for more on the real Santa). 

My counselor talks about victories. What would victory look like for me in the hushed and holy moments of Christmas?

And oh, victory is when my children know of the Child, when they know victory over death comes wrapped in swaddling clothes and breathing in the smell of dust and hay and donkey.

So this season of Advent, of blood and breath and birth, every night, we are reading Bible stories that tell The Story, that roll the red carpet right down to a splintered, stinking manger.

I mentioned we don’t “do” Santa because we want to make more space for the real miracles. We want to breathe in the moments when our children wonder at the Kingdom of Heaven come down.

And there is a little more room in the conversation for giving when the conversation is about the ultimate Gift.

For that infant King, that flesh-God, I want to do more, and be more, and give more and teach my children more and I need Him for every sanctifying second of it. 

So while we piece together this Christ-following at Christmas, I will settle down deep in the leather chair with chubby toddler arms around my neck and 5 and 9 year olds that have no business growing any bigger, and our babe whose smile lights even the darkest places in my day. We will faithfully read the stories that tell His Story and never mind the dishes in the sink, the dog hair on the couch, and the laundry pouring out into the playroom.

This Advent season we are on a journey to Bethlehem. 

And friends, it IS a victory.

I’d love to hear from you. What victories can you claim this season? What can you let go of to make room for the miracles?