Day 2: Prince of Peace

Today’s Christmas passage was Isaiah 9:2-7. Mara understood more than Micah, but even for her (and me!) this passage was a little complicated.

We focused on the names of Christ and talked through the meanings of each and why He is called that:

• Wonderful
• Counselor
• The Mighty God
• The Everlasting Father
• The Prince of Peace

When we got to the “Prince of Peace,” Mara gushed, “Oooooo, maybe I could be his princess?!?!” And. . .in a sense. . . if Christ is King. . . and we are His children . . . in a sense, she can be a princess! (Just probably not exactly in the way that she’s thinking right now.)

Our ornament craft today was a crown–relating to him being the “Prince of Peace.” A simple 2-inch section cut from a paper towel roll, painted and lovingly adorned with jewels.

This craft I did with Mara first, and then with Micah. Poor Carissa, never got a crown . . . oh, well–when she is older!!!! [After Carissa tasted the glue while making the “Light” ornament on Day 1, and Micah squirted glue on his pants and the floor while I was with somebody else, I do not feel so compelled to do the craft with all of them at once. I think a one-on-one setup will be preferable going forward, whenever circumstances allow. Even having the materials prepared for all of them ahead of time, it is still challenging to help all three at the same time within their varied and limited levels of capability.]

I’m never happy with indoor pictures–these more so, because they fail to capture the enthusiasm of Mara and Micah in this painting project. They were SOOO excited!! (I’ve never painted with them other than watercolor, so this really IS a whole new experience for all of us. When the paints came in the mail, and Mara and Micah were thrilled beyond words to pick out their brushes and begin!)

As small as the crowns are, it took longer to get ready than to paint them, and being the self-proclaimed “princess” that she is, Mara insisted on wearing the crown–which in reality all of us do at one time or another, don’t we?

After painting those teeny-tiny crowns, Mara and Micah both wanted to paint pictures. I didn’t have heavy-weight paper, so they just painted on a side of a cardboard box.

Micah was so cute. He leaned his cardboard on a paper towel roll as if he were painting on an easel! Unfortunately, it didn’t work so well, but I’m guessing he must have seen people painting on an easel before.  And Mara loved mixing colors. It was cute to see her face light up when she figured it out: “[GASP!] Re-ed! and Blue! Make–Purple!!!!!”

Micah explained his painting to Daniel–something about “here is where we live. . .” but beyond that, I think he was mostly mixing colors.

Mara told me she painted a picture of giving her purple crown to Jesus. And I was touched.

I thought of the passages in Scripture that indicate that we will receive “crowns”/”rewards” in heaven not for our righteousness (because we have only Christ’s) but for our faithfulness and endurance. And Scripture indicates that we will take those crowns and give them back to Jesus someday in eternity.

That’s what I thought of when I saw this picture.

Then I thought of how she is giving Jesus a paper-towel roll crown.

And it hit me that a paper-towel-roll crown is really about the best any of us has to offer Christ. Our crowns are “earned” as we yield to Him and He works in and through us. . . and it made perfect sense why we would give them back–because they were all His to begin with.

When we give to Him–ourselves, our plans, our possessions, our dreams, even our family; when we yield to His plans for us, to His will and His way, then we find the peace that He came to bring.