Advent 2019

Welcome to Grafted Life's Advent 2019 Series! This page accompanies a weekly email series being sent during Advent 2019. Toward the bottom of each email is a link taking you to this page where you will find additional activities, scripture reading, and more.

Our hope in creating this resource is to provide you with a framework to find sacred moments throughout this Advent Season. We’ve purposely kept this Advent Family Experience simple because we this is a busy time and we want to equip you without overwhelming you. But we know that some people will appreciate extra resources in addition to the simple structure provided in the email each week. This is for you!

If you are considering adding something extra, think intentionally about how to do that. Is there a time of day that lends itself to a brief family devotional moment? Maybe instead you want to give the daily readings to your family members to read on their own. Find what works for your family.

In addition, we’ve provided an extra activity that can be done with whatever nativity set you may have, as long as the pieces are detachable. This activity is great for young children, but can also be a very simple but meaningful visual for older children / teens and even adults as we anticipate the birth of our Savior. Whether you add these extra pieces or not, our hope and our prayer is that your Christmas season will be full of sacred moments that illuminate the darkness of this world with the light of Christ.

Nativity Set Activity

For this activity we are going to use our own nativity sets to help mark the progression of the advent season. Filling the nativity a little more each week will
mirror our reading and be a visual reminder of the coming of our Savior, but also the sacredness of the anticipation of his followers.

Step 1: Choose a nativity set. The set needs to have two major things:

Separate pieces, so that you can easily separate Bethlehem and each character;
Contain: an Angel, Mary and Joseph, Shepherds and baby Jesus. The 3 Magi are optional for this exercise.

Step 2: Add characters. During each week’s reading, you will add someone new to the nativity. Add the new character after the scripture reading each week. This is a great thing for young children to do. Find a special place to store the characters who have not yet been brought out and send children to retrieve them.

Here are the characters to add each week along with your single candle representing Jesus:

Christmas on Epiphany Sunday: If that is your tradition as a family, you can add all the animals on this week instead and save the three kings until after Christmas Day.

Christmas Day or Christmas Eve: Baby Jesus! This can be a lot of fun for young children. Consider revealing this next character in dramatic fashion.

Daily Scripture Rhythm

In the email you receive each Friday you are provided with a weekly experience. The following daily rhythm provides a way for you to sit with the Scripture each day of the week in addition to the weekly time you spend together as a family. You’ll see a lot of repetition and we’ve done that intentionally to provide a way for you to meditate more fully on these important passages.

You can choose to use this schedule as a personal reflection or read the passages aloud on a set time of day with the whole family. If you have adult or teenage children, consider everyone reading these daily passages as a personal meditation and then talking about their experience when you come together once a week.

Week 1
Day 1: Isaiah 9:2-7
Day 2: Isaiah 9:2-3
Day 3: Isaiah 9:4-5
Day 4: Isaiah 9:6-7
Day 5: John 1:9-13

Week 2
Day 1: Luke 1:67-80
Day 2: Luke 1:5-25
Day 3: Luke 1:57-66
Day 4: Isaiah 11:1-5
Day 5: Luke 1:67-80

Week 3
Day 1: Luke 1:46-56
Day 2: Luke 1:26-38
Day 3: Luke 1: 39-45
Day 4: Matthew 1:18-25
Day 5: Luke 1:46-56

Week 4
No reading plan for this week of Christmas.