A Defferent Kind of Advent

At the begining of this Advent season I was so determined not to let another Church season pass by without using it to grow closer to Christ and thrive in the richness of the season with joyful expectation of the Baby Jesus' arrival. I had pious resolutions to put our television in a closet and replace it with a statue I own of a pregnant Virgin Mary (I still plan to do this in a week or so). I gave up facebook (which I could write a post about all in it's own) and I resolved to read from a devotional every morning. But Christ had something so much more special for me to start this Advent season, and it has helped me grow closer to Him much better than any of my personal resolutions would have done.

As I stated in my last post, my family has been very sick. Peanut started out with a high fever, crying all the time, miserable with a horrible ear infection. I was to follow with a lost voice and sore throat. When we returned home from Thanksgiving my husband became very sick with terrible fever, cold, body aches, puking and pink eye that was so bad he couldn't even open his eye. My little Belle followed with fever and pink eye. Needless to say, we were all sick. But as you moms out there know, moms can't get sick. There is no time for personal rest when your family is sick. Only self sacrifice, which is the fastest way to the heart of Christ.

For this Advent season I have had the blessing of being able to serve my family in their illness. I have been engulfed for the past two weeks in nothing but their care. All of my personal obligations for play dates and book clubs have ceased, and I have locked myself in the home to tend to their needs. What better than suffering and servitude to make a heart long for a peace that only the Christ Child can bring? Somehow in the smallness of my very own home I have come, through this illness, to experience a longing of heart for better health and a hope for a new day. A longing that surely the Jewish people felt as they anxiously awaited their savior in their hundreds of years of "advent".

Christ had much bigger plans for me this advent season than I could have ever planned for myself, and I am so thankful for that. May your advent bring you a longing for hope and a peace of heart that only the Christ Child can bring.