The Candle of Love ~ Advent Week #4

Love all lovely, love divine, Love came down at Christmas time…

Welcome to Advent week #4, the week of Love. God’s ultimate gift to us was his Son’s coming to earth as a newborn baby and giving up his deity to become fully human…

In this fourth week, we light all four candles around the Advent wreath as we await the celebration of the Christ child’s birth…

Writing for Christianity.com in her Advent series:

These candles remind us of the attributes of God we use during our anticipation of Christ’s coming: his first coming for Christmas and his long-awaited second coming.”

Hope Bolinger

Later this week, on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, the fifth candle is lit… For us this year, it will be in a Christmas Eve post…

Today I share our table set with a cozy wintery theme of reindeer and rough linen. Using the original set of Christmas tree napkins I folded a couple of weeks ago, I accidentally folded upwards instead of each row being tucked inside. Guess I created a new style of Christmas tree!

The way I saw on Claus Dalby‘s Christmas Tree Napkins Instagram post is to push the folded triangle underneath the one above, but I didn’t watch the video all the way… (the second time through I was in a hurry) so I missed that part. I missed that step making the bird decorated trees. I liked both versions so my bird napkins have the points “pointing to Heaven!”

The napkins themselves add a festive touch on top of each Johnson Bros. “Friendly Village” dinner plate. The crossed silverware creates a star on top! Both are nods to Jesus ~ the star leading the shepherds to Jesus’ birth and the Christmas tree as a foreshadow of the cross Jesus would bear at his death. To me, the star also signifies Hope. The Hope that although Jesus came to this world to die for our sins, we have the knowledge that he rose again on the third day bringing us the Hope of Ethernal Life with Him in Heaven.

The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel [which means God is with us].

Isaiah 7:14

Ms. Bolinger also talked about the Advent weeks having other meanings representing part of the Christmas story:

Week One ~ The Prophecies about the coming Messiah

Week Two ~ Bethlehem, Jesus’ birthplace

Week Three ~ The Shepherds who came to see Jesus

Week Four ~ The Angels who proclaimed the good news of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds.”

When my children were young, we found little white ceramic angels at one of the craft stores. We took those angels home and tapped little nails above each of their beds and hung them there as guardians. Those little angels helped my children sleep through the night, knowing they were always protected by God and his force of angels.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 ‘Glory to God in the highest, And on earth, peace, goodwill[e] toward men!’ “

Luke 2: 13-14

The groupings of three pinecones on the table also are reminders of the three crosses on Calvary, but they are also happy reminders of the sustenance God gives us ~ the Living Water of Jesus. Pinecones feed hungry squirrels and other wildlife just as the Word of God feeds our souls… Love goes round and round. <3

Well, friends, I think I shall close here for now…

Our final table will be laid on Christmas Eve for another visit with Jesus. The rest of our mantel will be shared and our Christmas living room tour will be shared. It’ll be a fun post sharing our final candle and tablescape with you!

Blessings to you,

Barb