Looking in Advent

Christmas comes quickly. As soon as Halloween is behind us, everything is suddenly red, green and tinsel as far as the eye can see. It can be particularly fast-paced for young families. The calendar fills with school celebrations, extra worship services at church, choir practices, concerts, pageants and parties with gathered friends and family. And as this noisy world swirls busily around us, we also end up putting the pressure on ourselves as we make long lists and complicated plans, trying to include everyone and everything. We tell ourselves we are building festive memories for our children, but in the midst of it all, December can feel like a lot of work.

A little bit of space would be a good and gracious thing.
Laura Alary’s new book, Look: a child’s guide to Advent and Christmas, helps us to find that space in creative, theologically-wise ways. Look is the companion book to Alary’s Make Room: a child’s guide to Lent and Easter, also published by Paraclete Press. In each book, Alary offers a gentle guide to the season, crafting a child’s perspective that is both respectful and full of wonder. Look traces the days from the end of autumn and the beginning of Advent through to Christmas morning.

Alary structures her guide on a loose framework of looking back, looking around, and looking ahead. She weaves the longing we find in the Old Testament with practical actions we can adopt today to address the needs we see around us: donations of food and clothing, reaching out to neighbours and finding new ways of being kind. Then through Mary’s story, we are prompted to look ahead into a future where God is asking each of us to participate in a greater story. We are asked to think about our own choices and about times when we have said yes and no to God’s callings.

“During Advent, we try to be brave like Mary and say yes to new things.”

The narrator wonders how God’s people felt in the past and also wonders about our own lived faith.

“Sometimes I think I can see God in other people. I wonder if they can see God in me? God comes in ways we don’t expect.” These wonder-based questions are good for opening thoughtful conversations with children, and ask us to push beyond content into contemplation.

I appreciated the balance of scriptural history, relying on both Testaments, and contemporary faith practice as seen in our churches and family homes. By connecting story and action so gracefully, Alary models a way of sharing scripture with children that feels embedded in and embodied by our life together.

She describes familiar traditions like the lighting of Advent candles, putting new suggestions of meaning alongside older ways of understanding. To the story of the nativity, she adds village women who visit the stable with gifts of food for the young family. This feels fitting because, of course, people come to share like that! That is what people do. She also suggests how we might reach out to others around us, by sharing meals, making new friends, helping the disadvantaged people, and participating in community.

The book is filled with beautiful illustrations by Ann Boyajian. Her style is rich and evocative, but never cluttered or distracting. My own children enjoy looking for the subtle inclusions that deepen the message. In the illustration of Jesus’ baptism, they noticed that his wet shirt clung to his back, making a shadow cross, which made them wonder what it was like for Jesus to hear God’s calling. At the top of the next page, they read these words:

“During advent we look around. We try to see things we usually miss.”

A beautiful a-ha moment and incentive to keep our eyes open.

Advent doesn’t need to simply be about counting down to Christmas. It can be a rich season in itself and a time when we think about how we look and where we look for meaning and direction.

Simply and beautifully told, Alary’s Look is an excellent resource, creating a faith-filled space in a busy season. I look forward to reading it again with my children throughout Advent, taking time to look carefully and to share this story of wonder.