Many of you have been working your way through the four weeks of Advent by lighting candles in an Advent wreath. The candles: Hope, Love, Joy, Peace all speak into the experience of Christmas and the cosmic implications that Christ's birth has had on the story of God's restoration plan for creation.
These candle themes have such far-reaching effects if we take seriously the depth and breadth of Christ's reign and the impact of His coming. As we move through advent, I've caught myself often considering each of these themes in the lives of the students at Covenant as they move through their educational journey.
If we are a school that is redeemed by the coming of Christ and operates from this assumption, it would hold that our students would experience this daily and weekly as well. Following are just a few (of hundreds!!!) ways in which I've experienced the advent themes recently.... perhaps you can think of your own experiences as well!!
If we are a school that is redeemed by the coming of Christ and operates from this assumption, it would hold that our students would experience this daily and weekly as well. Following are just a few (of hundreds!!!) ways in which I've experienced the advent themes recently.... perhaps you can think of your own experiences as well!!
Hope: a student, after diligent and hard work hopes that they understand enough to begin the next task, and that their work will come together as they have imagined. a teacher sits in anticipation as a student struggles to read aloud a passage they have worked so hard to master.
Love: a older student stops their game to attend to another who has fallen... dusts them off and sends them on to play. a teacher exercises persistence and patience with a student who is angry and frustrated and wants to give up.
Joy: a group of students chooses an optional recess inside to prepare for an upcoming activity they are excited to get started on. a teacher, after much preparation, launches into a cross-grade activity to introduce students to something outside of their normal experience to product creative and high quality work.
Peace: two students find a way to work together to solve a problem rather than fighting. a teacher enjoys a moment of calm in their classroom following the restoration of a broken friendship.
A principal continues to marvel at how celebrating Christ's birth continues to seem new and marvelous each year again, and how so often hope, love, joy, peace work and weave their way through this place.
We must be plugged in... "... for apart from me, you can do nothing..." John 15:5
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