Shepherds and Advent

I was joking recently with a friend that, if I had known how attached our children would be to the Advent calendar I made ten years ago, I would have taken the time to make it straight or at least less scruffy. It was the winter we failed to heat our apartment and our breath came out in puffs as we chased a toddler Caleb. Now, the calendar links us to our family culture and our traditions in December. It’s made of felt scraps and leftover fabric a friend sent as we settled into that chilly first apartment in Jordan. Each day has a verse and an activity…hot chocolate, singing a hymn by candlelight, a pillow fight. Our boys anticipate this much more than Christmas day.

The calendar hangs by a staff that is special to us, a hand-shaped crook gifted to Jeremy by an elderly patient who was also a shepherd. We love Jordanian shepherds who are weather-worn, brave, and rough around the edges. They smell like wood smoke and wool and the female shepherds used to take my face in their rough hands as they blessed me. Their eyes sparkled and I love imagining the angels making their secret appearance to these friends on a quiet night. They were the perfect audience for that outdoor concert. And so our simple Advent calendar and its staff are deeply imbedded in our December evenings.