Today, we began to make our home ready for the King who has already come, but comes again each year. It is a mystery and Advent allows us the time to explore this mystery. (For a lovely meditation on this idea, click here.) My 9-year-old son and I began to work on our Advent nature table together. As I looked around at the things we had to work with, the idea of making an Advent calendar with stones came to mind. Since my son is an avid rock collector, he thought this was a great idea. We selected 24 stones, and my son decided that the last three would be special stones to represent the gifts of the Three Wise Men. The wooden nativity figures are from our Godly Play set, but we used the Baby Jesus from our nature nativity that we made last year. Each day we remove a stone and the shepherds and Wise Men move closer to Bethlehem and Baby Jesus. My son added a this tower of blocks here to represent Herod's palace that the Wise Men will visit along the way. He first learned about the terrible slaughter of the innocents last year. It reminds us of the real danger that Baby Jesus was in soon after his birth, and how God used his wise parents, Mary and Joseph to protect him. Have a wonderful First Advent tomorrow! Linked to Sharing Saturday at Crafty Moms Share and Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now and Waldorf Wednesday at Seasons of Joy and Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted's Art Blog and Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions and Eco-Kids Tuesday Link-Up at Like Mama - Like Daughter
