Does anyone remember the time before VCRs, TiVo, DVDs, and On-Demand? A time when waiting and anticipation marked what it was to be a child at Christmas.
I remember searching the Sunday Bulletin’s TV supplement every week to find out exactly what time and what day A Charlie Brown Christmas or Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and many others would be aired. When I went to school that day, that was part of the playground discussions, “it’s on tonight eight o’clock channel 10. Will your parents let you watch it?” The anticipation of the treat was high and life got more intense as we waited for the time to come.
I think all of the instant availability of all kinds of things has made us lose a little of what the joy of Advent can be. We have forgotten how to be patient and wait or how to be excited and wait. We can have coffee instantly, we can watch TV shows whenever we want and with a microwave dinner can be made in a minute and a half. Where fast food was once a treat, it is now a staple all pretty much to our detriment. This sense of entitlement as well as the idea of, I deserve it and, I want it now has done little in helping us to slow down and see life. Sometimes it feels like we are constantly caught up in a tornado that never drops us.
The solution comes at Advent. The Old Testament says “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles.” As we wait we grow stronger. We learn the peace of patience and the tornado has to stop, because we have.
When I buy a nativity scene as a gift or for myself, it has to have one specific thing. The babe must be separate from the manger. When I was little and attended mass every week. During Advent the whole town of Bethlehem was set up in a corner of the church. Everyone was there. The wiremen the shepherds the sheep and Mary and Joseph, but the manger was empty. The Baby Jesus did not get placed in the manger until Christmas Eve at Midnight Mass. I couldn’t wait until mass was over to see the child. I knew Christmas had come.
I do the same thing every year. I set up the barn and place the figures in their places, but the child gets hidden away and I don’t place it on the scene until Christmas Day. This still reminds me that indeed Christmas has come.
I read a long time ago how one family had decided to help the children understand Christmas a little better. I think this is a beautiful thought and very easy to start as a tradition in your own family. First you set up the barn and the empty manger wherever you would put the nativity scene. You do this early in Advent. Then you place the shepherds and the sheep in a place you would designate as the field around Bethlehem. You take Mary Joseph and the donkey and place them as far away as possible from the manger, but still in the same room. The Wise men go as far away as possible and hopefully to the east of the barn. As each day passes you bring Mary and Joseph a little closer to the barn as well as the wise men. You do this every day along with your family maybe telling the story of what it was like to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem and why they had to go. You do the same with the wise men. On Christmas Eve you have all of the figures in place and at midnight you place the baby in the manger.
If you wanted to be even more accurate you could keep the wise men traveling until January 6th, when we celebrate the visitation of the wise men. This small act can help restore the idea of joyful anticipation and maybe your family will be happy to see the child placed in the manger before they discover what gifts are under the tree.
