Spiral of Light

The Advent Spiral of Light is a beautiful tradition that has made its way into our church, thanks to the talented and insightful woman who previously held my current job as Director of Youth Education. 

Today we worked together to create this special event for the children of our parish..

 

A chalk sign for outside..

 

Carving the apple candle holders...

My mother really came to the rescue with this...it is a lot harder than it looks!

Between flattening out the bottom so they stand up...and getting the candle to fit snugly...

There's probably an art to doing this!

We began the evening with a potluck for friends and family...

We were hoping that by adding low lighting the children would not run about the large room,

 but they are always so excited to see each other and it comes out in different ways...

We weren't sure just how many people would be in attendance, but it just so happens that we had exactly enough chairs.

(Later, we discovered that we had exactly enough apples and candles, as well!)

 

Holy Family in the center of the Spiral 

 

Wesley lights his candle with his Grandma, "Granny Smith"

It was so special to watch Wesley have reverence for the whole setting...

I was stationed by the door; handing each child a candle...

A helper called each child, one by one, from the other room to the Spiral.

A parent played beautiful music on the Native American flute in the background, which really added to the experience.

A young boy and girl dressed in white sat in the center of the spiral to assist the very young children with their candles.

We all heard Wesley coming down the hall to the Spiral room; talking loudly and running...

The moment he walked into the room, his expression totally changed...

My beautiful friend, Heather and her son, Vethan

 We watched as the room went from almost completely dark (except for the Christ candle in the center and the light from our Advent wreath) to full of brilliant light. A twelve year old boy turned to me and said, "Rebecca, it's beautiful..."

Winter is dark,

 yet each tiny spark brighten the way 

to Christmas Day..

Shine, little light

and show us the way

to the bright light of Christmas Day...