Today I unpacked the stable.  Tomorrow, on the first Sunday of Advent, I will unpack the angel.  Each Sunday of the Advent season, I will unpack another figure, another key player in the Christmas story, another person waiting to experience the arrival of the Christ child.

This stable appears to be old and drafty, the way we often imagine the birthplace of Jesus.  It was created by my father, so it holds a special significance to me beyond its role in the Nativity scene.

My father was an artist.  In my earliest memories he is sitting on the back porch carving wood with his pocket knife.  He called it whittling, but he was not mindlessly shaving slivers from a stick.  No, he created beautiful wooden sculptures with great skill and precision.  When the carving was done, he spent at least as many hours rubbing, polishing, buffing the wood to glossy perfection.  He also painted and sculpted in stone, but carving wood was a spiritual practice for him.  He saw God in the natural beauty of wood grain.

–from Waiting for Jesus

We are approaching the end of a busy week.  You may have prepared your home for guests, cooked a lavish feast, “shopped til you dropped,” carried home a tree tied to the top of your car, attempted to make that same tree stand up straight, untangled miles of lights, watched hours and hours of football, or participated in any number of other holiday traditions.

I hope you are also preparing your home and your heart for the observance of Advent, and I hope you’ll  join me here at IdaBethGeschke.com and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Waiting-for-Jesus-225478267868701/ to share thoughts, reflections, creative expressions, and prayers during the Advent season.

I wish you blessings while we wait…