The Light Before Christmas by Marty Machowski

This Advent devotional focuses on how light is used in scripture to point us to Christ. It has three parts per week of Advent, plus one section of a story to read each week. 18 total devotions: four for each week and another story section and final devotional for Christmas Day. Each day has a  “Warm-Up” section that has a brief activity to get your family in the right mindset. Next, is “Read the Word” where the scripture is written in the book itself. This is followed by the “Think About It” section with thoughts from the author.

The “Talk About It” section has questions to ask your family with answers included. Then, there is a “Sing Together” section where you can sing a traditional carol, and it ends with a short “Prayer” section. The five story chapters tell a story of a young girl who is reading through this devotional with her blind Grandmother. By the end, the girl comes to faith in Christ. If you did all of the sections, it would take you approximately 20-30 minutes.

Ages: Best for children 5+, but see Mom Thoughts below.

This devotional is structured very differently than most Advent devotionals. Only having 18 days of reading and activities gives you a little more flexibility. If 30 minutes seems like a lot of time to invest in one evening, you could certainly split it between two nights or omit things that are above your child’s head for that year.

This is probably best understood by school-age children and up, but if you wanted to do this with younger children, you could tailor it in any way to fit your family by omitting sections you feel they wouldn’t understand, although I recommend keeping scripture in each time! Do be aware that the short story you can read each week does mention both a Grandma and then her Granddaughter having a vision of heaven. Overall, I very much enjoy this devotional!

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