By Linda Kennedy, UTO Board Province 4 Representative, Member of the Formation and Development Committee
Advent is one of those gifts in the church calendar. It gives us much needed time during the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas to pause and reflect on the year that has been and the year that will be. Practicing Advent helps us to have a new start to the church year with grateful hearts.
But, waiting and pausing and reflecting are rare super skills for humans. We want to rush through getting everything completed and often do not adequately prepare for the journey. Many times, we do not focus on the moments of grace happening to us. We desperately need to “slow our hurried hearts” and reflect on what is to be.
This year, United Thank Offering invites you to explore gratitude practices developed for the season of Advent and to share those practices with your church, family, and friends.
One new practice involves a change in our Christmas cards. This year, we will not have Christmas cards as we have in the past. Instead, we have gift acknowledgement cards that we will send to your recipient. You make an online donation, let us know who you are honoring and if you’d like the Christmas card in the comments. We will mail an acknowledgment to the recipient. It is an easy way to reach out to the people that you love and give a gift which is then a “gift” to our grant recipients. It reminds them that you are grateful for them every day and you want to share that gratitude with others. As always, 100% of the gift will go for Ingathering.
Another idea is the return of our “Letter to Santa.” This is not your standard “Letter to Santa” listing a lot of things that the sender might want. Instead, it helps reflect on 2024 in a meaningful way through thoughtful questions on who and what we are grateful for in our lives. It asks not only what we want from Santa but what we need and facilitates discussion on who might need gifts from us or Santa and what those gifts might be. This is for all children of God to use to reflect gratefully on the gifts that we have received, will receive, and the gifts we want to share with our family, friends, and neighbors.
This year, we’ve added a free downloadable game (that people can play with or without the board and tokens) that invites participants to share favorite holiday memories, songs, stories, and even quotes from movies. The game gives us a chance to celebrate and give thanks for all the wonderful activities that mark our holiday seasons.
Finally, as for all seasons of the church year, there is a beautiful prayer in our liturgical booklet that can be used at home or church. It is a prayer that could be said during the lighting of an advent wreath or to start the day or even to mark the opening of presents. The prayers for Advent can be found in our liturgical booklet on page 10, followed by the prayers for Christmas. As this wonderful prayer helps us join in “holy patience,” we ask that God be with us every day and we pray that God will “slow our hurried hearts, give peace to our anxious minds, and draw us into such a heart of gratitude that we may be caught serving one another.”
UTO would love to see and hear how you have incorporated these materials into your individual or church practices.
Peace and blessings to you all this Advent season! May you walk with God in gratitude as he prepares our hearts for the arrival of the Christmas season.