A False Advent Story
I have no problem with the silly, seasonal stories of sleds, snowmen, gifts and goodies, nor do I have opposition toward singing vacuous seasonal songs. What I am concerned about is that each Advent season, our children are told a false story.
This false rendition of the Christmas story puts human pleasure at the center. It tells our children to look for life in the creation, rather than in the Creator. It tells them lies about who they are and what they need. It presents a world that needs no tree of sacrifice, no Messiah Lamb and no life-giving resurrection.
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This story forgets that the world our children live in is miserably broken, so much so that it groans waiting for redemption. This story neglects to tell our children that they are a grave danger to themselves because of the sin that lives inside them. And it surely doesn’t tell them that they were created to intentionally surrender their lives to the greater purposes, plans, and glory of God.
Advent Is a Gift to Parents
The Advent season is a gift to Christian parents because it affords you a focused opportunity to talk to your children about the most profoundly important things in all of life. All of the questions that this season addresses will be asked and answered by your children some way.
- What is this season about?
- Why did Jesus have to come?
- What is it that I need?
- How will those needs be met?
- Who am I and what is my life about?
- How is it that I am supposed to live?
These and many more questions are answered by the miracle of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It’s the ultimate true explanatory story, the only one that carries the promise of real life and true hope for our children.
So parents, this Advent, start preparing your children early and often for the collision of stories that this season has become. Tell them the story of Jesus again and again. Tell them the bad news of why he had to come, because it’s only then that they’ll understand and celebrate what his coming accomplished on their behalf. Tell them that the best gift ever given was the gift of Jesus, because in that gift we are given everything we need.
And don’t forget to make your Advent conversation about a tree, but not the one in your living room. Talk about how that baby in the manger came not to decorate a tree, but to hang on it for their salvation. Remind them that in a world darkened by sin, that tree of sacrifice and salvation shines as a light of eternal hope that will never, ever go out.
This article about a Christmas tree gospel message originally appeared here.
