The idea of observing advent (or even knowing what it was) is a pretty recent thing for our family. The problem with alot of rituals that even have a whiff of christmas "holiday" on them jerks me right out of the meaning and into some sort of sugar plum fairy-land where all good christian girls and boys get nintendo from Jesus dressed like santa. It all gets mixed up into the swill of the large church/macy production mentality that I think this year (finally) I can step back from and see through. Wanting to create something that was thought provoking but not in a way that the cheezy christmas carols piped in at the grocery store is (in shopping for thanksgiving turkey this phenomenon nearly drove Bryan batty) I came up with this.
The wood came from an old barn that I used to play in as a child. The Crown was something I had gotten (from the holy land) as a prop for a series of easter photos that I produced two seasons ago. And the candles were as far away from the traditional looking wreath candles as possible. Assembling it was easy, but I have to admit the crown pierced the purple candle pretty bad when I put it on which was thought provoking in itself. This visual reminder on our table will hopefully allow us to look past the birth onto the sacrifice while still celebrating it.
So this first day of advent with Daniel home for the weekend, he lit the candle, Bryan prayed and we shared a celebratory meal of duck. This contrasted in such a funny way to last week's thanksgiving meal in which the size of the poultry by nature screams "excess". I think I was more genuinely thankful for the duck because of what this meal represented. (Ok so it isn't really fasting, but at least the focus isn't on christmas shopping).;-)
One in the series of the crown of thorns imagery...
beautiful blair - both the 'wreathe' and the thorns.