Kings Day (Dia de los Reyes)

Have you heard of Epiphany or King's Day?  We have enjoyed celebrating and studying it the last couple years.  Helps ward off any let down/depression from Christmas, especially for my sensitive and moody  child :)

Did you know the 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Eve/Christmas?  Then go to January 5th, with the 6th being King's day?  Do you know the meaning behind the 12 Days of Christmas song?

King's day can look different for everyone.  Here's what it looks like for us:

Activities:
- Historically, it is believed that the kings were from Arabia, Africa, and the Orient.  You can learn a little about these cultures at this time.
- Act out the journey of the kings to Bethlehem (dress up as royalty)
- Learn about and study the star patterns in January (Sky Deck is a great resource)
- Watch Dora Saves 3 Kings day
- Sing We 3 Kings, I saw 3 Ships, and other Christmas songs having to do with Kings/Wisemen.  Learn to play some of the songs
- Complete giving/ serving activities as gifts for Jesus (then we put in a special stocking just for Jesus)
- On Kings day, take down all the Christmas decorations and put up winter decor
- Bible study: learn about how Jesus became incarnation to us, who the Kings represent (non-Jews and rich), Read Matthew 2 and talk about how Jesus was now a child, living in a house in Bethlehem, the dreams, the flight to Egypt, and Herod.
- Learn about spices and essential oils - specifically Frankincense and Myrrh
- Make crown crafts or use any Christmas cards with Kings on them to make a craft
- Write a song/poem/ story about the journey of the Kings
- Learn about desert life
- Sort of an Elf on the Shelf idea: find 3 (or more) figures to represent the Kings (we use lego people) and each night move them around as search for the new King Jesus.  Often the kings are found around our house near bibles or story books, or other figures :)  My daughter really enjoys this.
- On Kings day, put a few little gifts in the child's stocking.  Have some family favorite foods.
- Make a 12 days of Christmas countdown to Kings day (more about that below)

Books to read:
- A Pinata In a Pine Tree
- Roc & Roe's 12 Days of Christmas
- A Stork in A Boabab Tree
- 12 Days of Christmas (Rachel Isadora)
- Federico and the Magi's Gift
- The Stone (A Persian Magi story)
- Istar's Odessey
- On Three Kings Day = El día de los tres Reyes Magos
- The story of the Three Wise Kings / retold & illustrated by Tomie dePaola.

- The 12 Days of Christmas: The Story Behind a Favorite Christmas Song

- The Christian Origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas: A Children's Activity Book

The Twelve days of Christmas
The 12 days of Christmas actually represent Christian truths.  The song was written both to help young children memorize a lot of biblical truths, and also truths hidden in the songs for times of persecution - no one will have any idea what the song really means.

Day 1: Partridge in a Pear Tree represents Jesus
     Read Philippians 2:3-11, Luke 2
     Activity: put Jesus, cross ornaments on the tree, look at star charts

Day 2: Turtledoves represents Old Testament/ New Testament
     Read Matthew 22:37-40 (OT), 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NT), Galatians 5:21-31
     Activity: make a bible craft

Day 3: Hens represent Faith, Hope, Love
     Read 1 Corinthians 13
     Make heart crafts

Day 4: Calling birds represents the 4 Gospel
     Read Acts 1:1-3
     Activity: Sing the books of the Gospel, watch bible videos of the Gospel

Day 5: Golden Rings represents the Pentateuch
     Read Deuteronomy 31:9, Matthew 5:17, Romans 4:15, 7:7, 7:12, Galatians 3:23
     Activity: make a scroll

Day 6: Geese represents 6 Days of Creation
     Read Genesis 1;1
     Activity: make/create something out of clay or playdough

Day 7: Swans represents the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit
     Read Genesis 4:7, 1 Corinthians 7:27-31a

Day 8: Maids A-milking represents the 8 Beatitudes
     Read Matthew 5:3-12
     Activity: make gift bags to giveaway to the homeless

Day 9: Ladies Dancing represents the 9 characteristics of the Fruit of the Spirit
     Read Galatians 5:22-24
     Activity: make a fruit of the Spirit picture and fruit salad

Day10: Lords A-Leaping represents the 10 Commandments
     Read Exodus 20:1-17
     Activity: make tablets

Day 11: Pipers piping represents the 11 faithful disciples
     Read Acts 1:13-26
     Activity: talk about faithfulness, play a faithfulness version of Simon says

Day 12: 12 Points of the Apostles Creed
     Read Acts 2
     Activity; Listen to Petra's Creed, and Newsboys We Believe and talk about the points heard.

Christmas book list

Here is my partial list of Christmas books that we get from our library each Decemeber (we start selecting them for holds the weekend before thanksgiving)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/RIRSRQ9YP59W/ref=cm_wl_list_o_2?

Our Christmas Hope

Today in David’s town is born

In a home so humble & forlorn

The holy, precious Child

So innocent, meek & mild.

The promised Messiah come

Of Him the world knew none.

Did He already know

The way His life must go?

How Your heart must have torn!

Causing You to mourn

The sinful state of man

The rebelliousness that can

Be so bold & strong

Blinding us to wrong.

How could we ever hope to see

Salvation—so great, so free?

Holy Lamb of God

Gentle, with a rod.

Crucified, sinful man to save

Knowing we would crave

The hope that He would bring

So loving hearts could sing

Of the wonder & grace

That radiates from His face.

- C. Sanders

I wonder...

Based on a my study of Mary (part of the Woman After God's Own Heart series) by Elizabeth George. It has been a wonderful reminder of the true "reason for the season" and I've been thinking about how as humans the characters of the Christmas story may have felt.

Here as some of the things, I wonder:

- I wonder if Mary:

 1: at the angel's words was afraid and distressed, while amazed and giddy, knowing the penalty for a woman pregnant and not married. Was her mind racing with a thousand questions? Was she worried about how to tell Joseph and how he if he would dump (break the engagement) her? The angel never assured her that Joseph would stay with her.

2: was scared about giving birth to her Son, with no attendant, doula, or mother AND on the road in a foreign place, in a cave?!

3: wondered how people would recieve a 13/14 year old saying she was pregnant with the Messiah? how would we have treated a young girl from a destitute place/ part of town if she said that?

4: did she tell anyone besides Joseph that her baby was the Messiah or was it a secret she kept to herself His whole young life? did her other children know? how did they feel about it?

5: what happened in the "silent" times between her at three months pregnant leaving Elizabeth's house and traveling to Bethlehem at 8+ months?

6: when Mary "treasured all these things in her heart" & heard the things Simeon at the temple said of the "sword that would pierce her own heart", did she understand what was going on? or was she trying to put the pieces together and at His death and resurrection it made sense?  That would be a long time to wonder.

7: I wonder how it would have felt to know the baby moving inside her was the Son of God?! How delievering a baby, but knowing this was the delivery of God most High!?! Of looking in the angelic face of "her" newborn and realizing she was was looking on the face of God in a way no one had before.

I wonder at Joseph:

1: how he must have felt when told/ or found out news that Mary was pregnant. The thoughts and pain he must have felt. hurt by her. hurt at what he had to do..dreams and hopes lost. trust gone.

2: what did he think and feel when awoke from his dream where the angel appeared to him? relief? joy?

3: did he ever doubt or second guess when he and Mary were in rough times in their relationship? How do we respond under pressure?

4: how helpless he must have felt with having to take Mary with him on the long journey to Bethlehem and subject her at nearly 9 months pregnant to that grueling trip.

5:  I wonder how it felt for Joseph to know that this child was not his, and to suffer the shame of having a baby before marriage, and to "adopt" Jesus as his own.

6: How did Joseph feel delivering his child in a time/culture where men usually weren't even in the room? How did he know what to do?

I wonder:

1: did they ever feel during that journey what an inconvenience & hardship with this was with Mary so close to 9 mo pregnant? how she could have complained and made life miserable as that time of pregnancy is often so miserable and long anyway! think about having to walk 40-70 miles (riding a donkey would probably have been worse).

2: how worried they must have been with her being so close to her due date - where is she going to have the baby? will there be anyone to help? will there be a home/ inn available?

3: what a way to start a marriage- pregnant and on the road, and tension/ nerveous with the birth of the Savior imminit. how much hardship and inconvience are we willing to endure as God's instrument?

4: I wonder how Mary and Joseph felt on thier way to Bethlahem seeing Roman soldiers trying to stamp out "rebellion" to the king when the one true King - the threat - was unseen still in the womb.

5: I wonder: how did Joseph and Mary feel about the Wisemen visiting? These were pagans - who not just dabbled in, but were immersed in astrology, horoscopes and the like. Not rich kings like we imagine. Was it scary having these pagans there to worship the Savior? Was it shocking and awe inspiring? Did they covert on that trip/night?

I wonder about the Wisemen:

1: what they thought about or imagined what they would find at the end of their journey? they knew a king...were they surprised He was a baby? did they in their wildest dreams, imagine that?

I wonder at the Shepherds:

1: how surprised were they as the dirty, low down, despised of the day, to be told the news of the Messiah?

2: how did people respond to the Shepherds (the dirty, low down, despised of the day) telling the news of the Messiah? how do we treat those we think are less than ourselves? surprisingly, God may want to use them.

3: I wonder if the Shepherds were terrified of the Angels because they appeared in the night (seemed like ghost), they were so huge or bright, or because they appeared to strong? They are warriors after all.

I wonder at Elizabeth:

1: no jealousy of a young teen being chosen by God to bear the Messiah and not herself, though the bible makes perfectly clear she had lived her whole life "righteously and blamelessly." she could have thought "why wouldn't God chose me? i deserve it more than her...i've proved my whole life that i love God." what humility!

2: living righteously despite the pain, embarrassment and unanswered prayer. how do we hold up under those experiences?

3: what a blessing it must have been to spend time with someone who believed her and knew the truth about the baby in her womb. How encouraging Elizabeth must have been to Mary at a time when she really needed someone to believe what the angel had told her and to encourage her to not lose heart. How honored she was to be the mother of the Messiah, even though she wasn't married and could be stoned for pregnancy before marriage.

Books that explain why we celebrate the way we do (Christ centered)

Christ focused Christmas videos

No moment of waiting is meaningless

The tradition of Advent was observed formally in my home church growing up, but I never really understood what it was about.  This month, I have been reading up on Advent and am blown away by the depth of the thoughts to ponder.  

The Gospel Coalition wrote the following, "In Advent, Christians embrace the groaning, recognizing it not as hopeless whimpering over the paucity of the present moment but as expectant yearning for the divine banquet Jesus is preparing for us.  In Advent, the church admits, as poet R.S. Thomas puts it, that "the meaning is in the waiting." And what we await is the final Advent to come! Just as the ancient Isrealites awaited the coming of the Messiah in flesh we await the coming of the Messiah in glory.  In Advent, believers confess that the infant who drew His first ragged breath between a virgin's knees has yet to speak His final word." 
(http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-celebrate-advent)

As I mulled on this thought, I realized that God has placed me in a situation where I must wait.  We have experienced infertility and loss in the last 5 years, and this waiting to see if and how God will add to our family is often excruciating.  In this, I am not assured that all will be right in this world, but the the expectant waiting helps me to understand in the spiritual realm the purpose for waiting and what longing unfulfilled looks like.    

This season is not JUST about what did happen and how God kept His promises, but also about the glorious promise that He will COME AGAIN and my heart is to be captivated by that! How awesome is that?  How we need these kinds of reminders in dark days, with Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Paris, and terror acts in the USA fresh in our mind!  God has NOT forgotten and He is on His way - SOON!  

This is the message I want to mull over and teach my daughter this year.  She knows the story of Nativity, the meaning, and the depth - very well, but this is a whole other area to explore with her.  It will be meaningful to her because she is the child who often pauses and looks up at the sky, noting..."it looks like Jesus could come back today";  or crying because she can't go to Heaven today;  or will bust out saying " when is Jesus coming back?  I've been waiting a REALLY long time (hilarious...she's only just turned 8)."  And the Lord uses her to reprimand my heart...why am I not so taken with His coming?  Why am I so focused on the here and now? Even she can get taken up with this world and its injustices that are placed upon her, so to refocus our hearts on Jesus' return and the setting of all things right will be a balm to our weary souls.  

A recommendation of the article referenced above, was to list some ways the world is broken as a family, and to talk about how God is already at work redeeming and saving the lost.  Then plan some family activities around the theme of relieving human suffering in your neighborhood - maybe help out at a soup kitchen, or food pantry, a homeless shelter, or handing out Christmas gifts to the needy.  One activity we have planned is to take cookies and cards to community helpers and people working in needed ministries as an encouragement to them.  What can you do this year to show God's love and promote the hope of His return?   

"Advent reminds us to listen for the message God is speaking, even in the waiting." Gospel Coalition