Advent Archives » Sondra Kraak https://sondrakraak.com/category/advent/ Trails of Love and Grace Sat, 19 Dec 2015 03:32:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 The Glitches in the Christmas Story https://sondrakraak.com/the-glitches-in-the-christmas-story/ https://sondrakraak.com/the-glitches-in-the-christmas-story/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2015 03:32:11 +0000 https://sondrakraak.com/?p=1685 After five years of helping lead the children’s Christmas pageant, I’ve seen a few miscues, heard a few mispronounced words that make a person fall out of her seat laughing, and endured a few chaotic rehearsals that rival The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Perhaps my favorite incident was when the angels forgot to appear. And […]

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]]> https://sondrakraak.com/the-glitches-in-the-christmas-story/feed/ 2 The Long Journey of Advent and the Rest at the End https://sondrakraak.com/the-long-journey-of-advent-and-the-rest-at-the-end/ Fri, 04 Dec 2015 02:08:49 +0000 https://sondrakraak.com/?p=1671 A journey eighty miles long and a load that grows larger each day. Sticks gouging sandaled feet. Blisters, hunger, and dust. More dust. Then rain. And mud. Strangers with stares that threaten peace of mind and lead to one-eye-open sleep. Hard ground beneath and the sky as a blanket. After such an journey, the walls […]

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]]> Crawling toward the Manger: Day 24 https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-24/ Tue, 23 Dec 2014 17:14:51 +0000 http://sondrakraak.wordpress.com/?p=1336 If you feel like you’re laying by the roadside, forgotten, take heart that God won’t leave you behind. I don’t have a lot of military associations in my family, but I’m impressed by the commitments and sacrifices those who serve our country make for us. All of us. Even those who disagree about war and plead […]

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]]> Crawling toward the Manger: Day 23 https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-23/ Mon, 22 Dec 2014 13:38:18 +0000 http://sondrakraak.wordpress.com/?p=1333 Are you moving toward God? And if so, are you prepared for when He moves toward you? Check out this C.S. Lewis quote (thank you, Amy): “An impersonal god? Well and good. A subjective god of beauty, truth and goodness inside our own heads? Better still. A formless life force surging through everyone; a vast […]

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]]> Crawling toward the Manger: Day 20 https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-20/ Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:58:29 +0000 http://sondrakraak.wordpress.com/?p=1327 The angels forgot to appear—or at least, they weren’t sent down the aisle for the Christmas pageant when all the children processed down in the beginning. Sitting at the piano, I didn’t notice. And neither did the director, until it was time for the first angel solo. “Where are the angels?” came the cry. And […]

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]]> Crawling toward the Manger: Day 19 https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-19/ https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-19/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:28:50 +0000 http://sondrakraak.wordpress.com/?p=1324 “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him . . .” (Luke 1:76) John the Baptist is one of the funny characters of scripture. He wears odd clothes, eats a strange diet, and when he opens […]

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]]> https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-19/feed/ 1 Crawling toward the Manger: Day 18 https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-18/ https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-18/#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2014 17:55:15 +0000 http://sondrakraak.wordpress.com/?p=1321 She’s going now, on the threshold of this life, looking across the Jordan. It’s the dusk of my grandmother’s life, and she’s waiting. Waiting for Christ’s coming . . . to take her home. And I’m waiting . . . also for Christ’s coming, to celebrate the Incarnation, the greatest coming of all. In the […]

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]]> https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-18/feed/ 1 Crawling toward the Manger: Day 17 https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-17/ https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-17/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2014 14:25:24 +0000 http://sondrakraak.wordpress.com/?p=1318 When life flips you upside down and shakes the hope from you and dreams fall like coins to the sidewalk, clattering, scattering . . . In that moment, what do you do? Mary found herself in such a moment. The future she’d imagined for herself was suddenly nothing more than past thoughts. Do you ever […]

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]]> https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-17/feed/ 2 Crawling toward the Manger: Day 16 https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-16/ https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-16/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2014 17:41:53 +0000 http://sondrakraak.wordpress.com/?p=1315 Scandal, shady characters, rumors, and ruined reputations infuse the Christmas story. Then a few years after Jesus’s birth, Herod swoops into Bethlehem and murders all the baby and toddler boys. You don’t see that part of the story in your normal Christmas pageant. But as I look at the battle in the world today between […]

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]]> https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-16/feed/ 1 Crawling toward the Manger: Day 14 https://sondrakraak.com/crawling-toward-the-manger-day-14/ Sat, 13 Dec 2014 18:05:30 +0000 http://sondrakraak.wordpress.com/?p=1312 An entire community of journeyers exists out in the blogging world, and today I encourage you to let their words stir the beauty of the season in you. In need of a miracle? Ann Voskamp, When Your Heart Hurts For a Miracle this Christmas. Celebrating with lots of guilt and comparison? Jennifer Dukes Lee: Have […]

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