great planning.

If you were a photographer who was given the chance to go back in history to capture a Christmas photograph, where would you go and what year would it be?

I would go back to the first Christmas and take a picture of the wise men arriving in Bethlehem to see Jesus.

            Have you ever wondered how God makes His promises happen? I used to imagine God doing something kind of mysterious that made everything go the way He wanted it to. But as I grew up, I found that the way God usually makes His promises happen is through great planning! Mary and Joseph are a good example of how that happens.

            God had promised Mary that her child was to be the Messiah. Mary would have known enough of the promises about Messiah’s coming to know that He was supposed to be born in Bethlehem. That wasn’t where Mary lived, and she could have spent all of her time worrying about how she could work it so that her baby could be born there. But she couldn’t have made it happen on her own.

            Instead, Caesar Augustus, the ruler of the Roman Empire, gave the reason for going there. God worked everything in such a way that Caesar suddenly decided that everyone should be taxed. In order to do that, they would have to go to the town of their birth. Joseph was born in Bethlehem, so to Bethlehem they went!

            God planned the whole thing!

            How to get to Bethlehem was Mary and Joseph’s problem. But God used the things that were happening around them to get them where He wanted them to be when He wanted them to be there! And He did it so that He could cause a miracle to happen that would bring blessing to the whole world.

            God wants to do the same kind of thing in each of our lives…. Sometimes when God gives people promises, they want to make the promise come true without His help. That never works. Whatever He promises, you will need His help for it to take place. You can’t make it happen on your own.

            That is what Bethlehem is a picture of: God bringing you to the place that He wants you to be so that He can do something great through you. God has different things for different people to do. And He tells people things at different times in their lives. No matter what God tells you or when He tells you, you can be sure that He will also bring about the perfect time for that to take place.

            When God gives you promises, don’t spend your time worrying about how they will happen. Listen to the Lord as He works in circumstances and talks to you through His Word. If you really want to do His will, He won’t let you make a mistake. God will get you where you need to be when you need to be there so that he can work His great purpose in you.

            -The 25 Days of Christmas by Rebecca Hayford Bauer

            My mom found this nativity in Kenya – it’s made from banana leaves!

the precious stone.

If snow could fall in any flavor, what flavor would you choose?

I think I would choose peppermint.

            Each day during Advent, Benjamin Bear opens a door on his Advent calendar to discover a new picture, and each day, his mother tells him a little bit more of a story about a little bear who is journeying to Bethlehem.

            Benjamin opened the next door and uncovered a precious stone.

            Early in the morning the little lamb and the little bear met a man who sat staring at a bright red stone.

            “What are you doing?” asked the little bear.

            “I’m thinking,” said the man. “For many years I’ve been thinking.”

            “What about?” asked the little bear.

            “I would like to ask you a question, little bear,” said the man. “I will give you this precious stone if you can tell me where God lives.”

            The little bear said nothing for a while. Then he said quietly, “I will give you this precious rosebush if you can tell me where God does not live.”

            The man looked at the little bear for a long time. “Little bear,” he finally said, “you are very wise. Where are you headed?”

            “To Bethlehem, where a new King is to be born,” answered the bear.

            “I wish I could go, too,” said the man, “but one of my legs is far too weak.” With effort he stood up and limped a few steps.

            “Here!” said the little bear. “This cane is for you! Just follow the star. You’ll make it, I’m sure.”

            Benjamin sighed happily. Mother Bear patted him gently. “The little bear was very wise,” she said. “God does live everywhere.”

            -Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas by Antonie Schneider

Here's another one of our Advent calendars - this one is based on the world of Narnia! You can also see another Nativity set that we found in Salzburg this summer.

the miracle is love.

If you were going to be Santa Claus for a Christmas Eve, what one amenity or convenience factor would you insist that your sleigh feature?

I would have to have endless supplies for making hot chai eggnog lattes.

There’s a miracle in Christmas –

There’s a stillness in the air

And excitement in the shining eyes

Of children everywhere

There’s a miracle in Christmas

As each silent night unfolds,

And we see again the promise

That this holy season holds.

There’s a wonder in traditions,

In the stories passed along,

In our thoughtfulness toward others,

And in voices raised in song.

There’s a reassuring comfort

In the joy glad tidings bring

And an inner peace from honoring

And praising Christ the King.

There’s a magic in the season,

In the kindnesses we do,

Whether joys are shared by many

Or among a special few.

There’s awareness of our gratitude

For blessings from above;

There’s a miracle in Christmas,

And the miracle is love.

-Jan Miller Girando

            Well, it’s the second Sunday of Advent! Today I’m enjoying the sense of magic that comes with the season of Christmas – we’re having some snow flurries today! Anyway, one of the magical parts of Christmas to me is when we finish decorating the tree and step back to admire the twinkling lights and glittering ornaments. I enjoyed this little story about the tradition of decorating Christmas trees.

            As the story goes, a professor named Martin Luther was walking alone through a forest one December night in the early 1500s. As he made his way home, the stars seemed to twinkle with an unusual brightness against the velvety blackness of the clear night sky. In fact, when he passed under the rustling branches of the evergreens, it seemed to him that miniature stars were dancing in the trees all around him.

            It wasn’t the sudden gust of cold wind that took the professor’s breath away; it was the unexpected wave of worship that caused him to shiver. Luther was overwhelmed by the awesome beauty of God’s creation.

            The legend goes on to tell how Luther chopped down a small fir tree and set it up in his family’s living area. He desperately wanted to somehow capture that moment in the starlit forest. Yet as he attempted to describe the beauty he had seen, words completely failed him.

            Suddenly Luther had an idea. He went through his house and gathered up all the burning candles. One by one, he carefully placed them on the branches of the tree, and the little fir in the middle of the Luther home began to dance with twinkling lights. This wise papa’s plan had worked! The Luther children’s eyes were suddenly opened to the meaning of Psalm 19:1: “The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.”

            -“Lights on the Tree” from The Adventure of Christmas by Lisa Welchel

God enfleshed.

If you had a miniature Christmas village set up in your home, what shop, building, or other object would be the most prominently displayed in your little town?

I would probably have a beautiful church with a tall steeple.

            A sky full of God’s children! Each galaxy, each star, each living creature, every particle and subatomic particle of creation, we are all children of the Maker. From a subatomic particle with a life span of a few seconds, to a galaxy with a life span of billions of years, to us human creatures somewhere in the middle in size and age, we are made in God’s image, male and female, and we are, as Christ promised us, God’s children by adoption and grace.

            Children of God, made in God’s image. How? Genesis gives no explanations, but we do know instinctively that it is not a physical image. God’s explanation is to send Jesus, the incarnate One, God enfleshed. Don’t try to explain the Incarnation to me! It is further from being explainable than the furthest star in the furthest galaxy. It is love, God’s limitless love enfleshing that love into the form of a human being, Jesus, the Christ, fully human and fully divine.

            Was there a moment, known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went with all his love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for joy?

- “A Sky Full of Children” by Madeleine L’Engle

As I read this passage, I was overcome with wonder at the magnitude of the fact of the Incarnation. How wonderful that God would shake off his infinite splendor and join us, “human creatures somewhere in the middle in size and age,” and become one of us so absolutely. L’Engle is right – the Incarnation cannot be satisfactorily explained. It is far too marvelous and mysterious for human comprehension. Somehow, someway, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

            Another beloved Bennett family tradition is baking lots of Christmas cookies. My mom and I started baking this week, so I wanted to share one of our favorite cookie recipes with you. Our Pealing Bells cookies are a Bennett family original – Mom found a picture of the idea but completely re-imagined the recipe. Here it is!

Pealing Bells

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 pkg. (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 cups flour, Golden 86 (white whole wheat)

1 cup finely chopped almonds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel

1 teaspoon almond extract or cherry extract

25 maraschino cherries, halved and well drained

Cream sugar, butter, and cream cheese.  Beat in egg yolk.  Stir in flour, nuts, salt, orange peel, and almond extract.  Shape dough into two 8-inch rolls.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours.

Pre-heat oven  to 325 degrees.

 Cut logs into 1/4-inch slices.  Place the rounds on parchment-lined baking sheets.  Place a cherry-half near the bottom of each slice for a bell clapper.  Fold in the sides of each slice, overlapping at the top and slightly covering cherry.  Pinch in the sides to resemble a bell shape. 

Bake at 325 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until done.  Slip  the parchment paper with the baked cookies onto wire racks to cool.  Store between layers of wax paper in airtight containers at room temperature no longer than 10 days or in the freezer no longer than three months. 

Makes 5 dozen bells

From the kitchen of Sally Bennett, 11-08-10

star of wonder.

Where does Santa summer?

            I’m pretty certain that he would summer in the most beautiful place in the world in order to gain inspiration for all the new toys each year. Therefore, he must summer in the Swiss Alps, specifically the Berner Oberland.

            “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

            -based on Isaiah 40:5

            Stars are made of many materials: tinfoil stars, paper stars, jewelry stars, plastic stars, musical stars, battery-operated stars, and kid-colored crayon stars. In modern times, the appearance of Christmas stars marks the beginning of a wild buying season. Two thousand years ago, the Christmas star led wise men to look for Jesus.

            The story of the Bethlehem star is told only in the gospel of Matthew (chapter 2, verses 1-12), In that record there are lots of clues about the star and its meaning. Those clues have fascinated astronomers, Bibles scholars, and ordinary people for almost as long as the story has been told.

            Matthew tells us that wise men from the East had seen an unusual star that they identified with a newborn “King of the Jews.” They called it “his star.” This king was so important that the magi planned a long, hard, uncertain journey to find Him. They were not guided by the star to Bethlehem but went, instead, to Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews, looking for the new king.

            Herod (who was the official king of the Jews) and his people were disturbed to hear the wise men’s story. Their confusion suggests that they might not have seen the star themselves – that it was only noticed by people like Magi whose job it was to study stars. Herod didn’t like the idea of another king in his kingdom, and he ordered the Jewish priests to tell him where he could find this new king. The priests told King Herod and the Magi about an Old Testament prediction that a ruler would be born in Bethlehem. And so the Magi traveled about five miles south of Jerusalem to Bethlehem, where they found Jesus. Matthew tells us that as they set out again, they were “overjoyed” to see the star. It sounds almost as though the star had disappeared and then appeared to them again for the last few miles of their journey.

            Matthew wrote about the star in a matter-of-fact way until the end of the story when he said that, as the Magi left Jerusalem, the star “went ahead of them” and “stopped over the place where the child was.” No ordinary star or planet could lead like that – like a guide with a flashlight directing a group through a dark forest. For this reason, many people believe the star was a miracle star. Certainly God could have used a supernatural phenomenon to guide the Magi. Others have thought that the star’s appearance was a natural rather than a supernatural event – that God used ordinary circumstances to work His will.

            One of the oldest and most popular of the natural explanations for the star suggests that it was not a star at all, but a close meeting of two planets as they traveled in their regular orbits. Astronomers call that a “conjunction.” Around the time that Jesus was born, there was a very rare triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (three meetings in about a year’s time). The triple meeting fits many of the clues given in Matthew’s gospel. For example, the series of three conjunctions could explain why the wise men seemed to have first seen the star in their homeland, then along the way, and then again after they left Jerusalem.

            What did those travelers from the East really see? Was the star’s appearance a special miracle, or was it a comet, supernova, star giant, fireball, group of planets, or something else? All of the theories fit part of the clues, some better, some worse. But no theory fits them all.

            In spite of all the uncertainty about what the star was, it is very certain what the star meant. It was something God used to bring wealthy, powerful, highly educated men to meet a baby in Bethlehem. Whatever the Magi saw in the sky filled them with a great longing to find the King of kings. From the first time that they saw His sign, they worked and waited with joy and hope for the fulfillment of their search. In that time, the star – His star, the glory of the Lord – was revealed to just a few wise men. That star marked the advent of the birth of Jesus.

            There is another advent, though, another coming. The Bible says that Jesus will come again a second time. The Second Advent won’t be marked with a star seen by just a few people. When Jesus comes again, the whole sky will be filled with His glory, and all of humanity will see it together.

            For now we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. All of creation, and we ourselves, groan inside, longing for our salvation. It is coming.

            This is our hope. After all, “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

            -The Handel’s Messiah Family Advent Reader by Donna W. Payne and Fran Lenzo

from cliff house.

In your opinion, what would be the ideal temperature for Christmas Day?

            I think around 29 degrees would be perfect, because then it could snow and not melt without it being too cold.

One of my favorite Christmas books is Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien. It contains a series of letters that Tolkien wrote for his children that feature misspelled words from the Great Polar Bear, shaky handwriting from Father Christmas, and beautiful illustrations of their adventures.

Cliff House

North Pole

Wednesday Dec. 23^rd 1936

My dear Children

I am sorry I cannot send you a long letter to thank you for yours, but I am sending you a picture which will explain a good deal. It is a good thing your changed lists arrived before these awful events, or I could not have done anything about it. I do hope you will like what I am bringing and will forgive any mistakes, and I hope nothing will still be wet! I am still so shaky and upset, I am getting one of my elves to write a bit more about things.

I send very much love to you all.

Father Christmas says you will want to hear some news. Polar Bear has been quite good – or had been – though he has been rather tired. So has Father Christmas; I think the Christmas business is getting rather too much for them.

So a lot of us, red and green elves, have gone to live permanently at Cliff House, and be trained in the packing business. It was Polar Bear’s idea. He also invented the number system, so that every child that Father Christmas deals with has a number and we elves learn them all by heart, and all the addresses. That saves a lot of writing.

So many children have the same name that every packet used to have the address as well. Polar Bear said: “I am going to have a record year and help Father Christmas to get so forward we can have some fun ourselves on Christmas day.”

We all worked hard, and you will be surprised to hear that every single parcel was packed and numbered by Saturday (December 19^th). Then Polar Bear said “I am tired out: I am going to have a hot bath, and go to bed early!”

Well you can guess what happened. Father Christmas was taking a last look round in the English Delivery Room about 10 o’clock when water poured through the ceiling and swamped everything: it was soon 6 inches deep on the floor. Polar Bear had simply got into the bath with both taps running and gone fast asleep with one hind paw on the overflow. He had been asleep two hours when we woke him.

Father Christmas was really angry. But Polar Bear only said: “I did have a jolly dream. I dreamt I was diving off a melting iceberg and chasing seals.”

He said later when he saw he damage: “Well there is one thing: those children at Northpole Road, Oxford (he always says that) may lose some of their presents, but they will have a letter worth hearing this year. They can see a joke, even if none of you can!”

That made Father Christmas angrier, and Polar Bear said: “Well, draw a picture of it and ask them if it is funny or not.” So Father Christmas has. But he has begun to think it funny (although very annoying) himself, now we have cleared up the mess, and got the English presents repacked again. Just in time. We are all rather tired, so please excuse scrawly writing.

Yours, Ilbereth, Secretary to Father Christmas

Very sorry. Been bizy. Can’t find that alphabet. Will look after Christmas and post it. Yours, Polar Bear.

Each year at the Bennett household, a wide assortment of nativities appear around Christmastime. My mom has been collecting nativity sets for many years, and now has sets made of everything from wood to banana leaves to rolled-up magazines. Her nativities come from many different countries, including Kenya, Israel, and England. This is one of our newer ones - we found it while we were in Salzburg this summer!

before the hero comes.

Let’s kick things off with an icebreaker.

When does it really start feeling like Christmas to you?

I suppose that one of the first sure signs of Christmas for me is when the Starbucks Christmas drinks appear, which often coincides with the wonderful day when I allow myself to pull my Christmas music back out. 

            Today I have a selection for you from a book that my mom just discovered this year called Preparing for Jesus by Walter Wangerin Jr. I love the way that he explains the concept of Advent by describing it as the first act in the “play” of the liturgical year.

            Throughout my life it has been my good fortune to experience the story of Jesus with every turning of every year. The number of the years of my unfolding age is also the number of times I’ve traveled with my Lord from his birth to his death to his triumphant rising again.

            And because the story has been more than told to me; because it has surrounded me like a weather; because it comprehends me as a house does its inhabitants or a mother does her child, the life of Christ has shaped mine. My very being has been molded in him.

            And because my response to this story has been more than an act of mind, more than study and scrutiny; because the story invites my entering in and my personal participation; because I have experienced the life of Christ with deeper intensity than I have my own daily affairs, the Gospel story now interprets for me the world’s story. It is through the Gospel narrative, as through a window or a template, that I see all things, that I relate to them and come to know them.

             In every sense of the phrase: I find myself in Jesus.

            As I enter his story I enter him. As his life embraces mine, he embraces me, and I am his….

            Act 1: Advent

            Before the hero enters, people anticipate his coming. Old promises are remembered. New promises are made. Excitement sparks and burns in the hearts of all the players: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, you, me, the children. Daily the excitement blazes hotter and hotter until we can scarcely stand it.

            Who’s coming? What’s his name? What’ll he be like? What’s he going to do?

            People prepare. Christians examine themselves. They clean up their lives, interior and exterior, making themselves ready to meet the hero at his coming. So kindled are many emotions that good hearts break into song both in heaven and on earth, waiting, waiting for … Christmas.

            A life shaped by Jesus such as Wangerin describes is the kind of life that I desire to be cultivated in myself. I pray that in this season of Advent, my heart will soften and grow as I prepare my heart for the coming of Jesus so that I will find myself in Jesus all the more each day.

            In the Bennett household, we have many Advent calendars that we love, but probably our favorite is a felt one that my mom made around 34 years ago as a creative way to inexpensively share the idea of an Advent calendar with her friends. My older siblings loved it so much that they would get up earlier and earlier each morning to find out which figure they would discover as they pulled one out of a pocket each day. As you can see, this morning I pulled out a little lamb.