An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light and Darkness

beautifully done
So excited to have found IM resources for my family and as church staff. We love using the coloring pages and the Advent light box was so much fun to do as a family. My kids (ages 5 and 7) loved playing with the figures and were so inspired by baby Jesus and his story! There are so few resources that are both doctrinally sound and beautiful to look at. IM is consistently both!

Jesus is the light 💡
We used this last year as a family devotion with our teenage daughter. The devotion was easy to fit into our schedule. We love that it is based directly on scripture, has relevant reflection that carries through on the theme of light and darkness. “We know, though, God works through all things, and everything God created, both the bright light of day and the darkness of night, are called “good.” The discussion questions and activities led us to have great talks with our daughter about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. The nativity shadow craft was fun to do together and will be a part of our Christmas traditions every year now. As the Director of Children and Family Ministries at our church, I LOVE implementing IM curriculum into our programs and sharing them with our families. We use the worship resources every week. We are using the Beatitudes Curriculum as a Family Sunday School this fall and plan to incorporate Advent Resources as Family Kits . Illustrated Ministry is my go to resource.

Beautiful resource for our families
Illustrated Ministry continues to earn my trust in providing resources that are current, relevant and teach the love of God in a way that is meaningful to our families. This devotion is no exception. I love that it includes both a daily guide and a weekly devotion so that families can choose to make it work for them. The readings and devotions are meaningful and easily accessible for parents to use at home. We were able to adapt the devotions for use during our children's time on Sundays as well as for families to share together at home. I loved the use of light and darkness as a way to illustrate the light Christ brings to this world. It was visual and unique and our families loved it.

Easy to use, thoughtful, inclusive, and honoring of the Advent story!
This devotion is not only gorgeous to look at, but I trust what is included inside. As a children and family minister, I know that I can give this to parents and they will be able to follow along and lead these conversations with their kiddos without me there.
The devotions aren't super long which means households can do a quick devotion each week or dig deeper and spend time coloring and doing the activities.
Along with this, the characters are black and brown instead of white-washed.
This is also a beautiful tool to talk about the imagery of light and darkness and what Jesus brings into this world without saying "light is good and dark is bad."
An overall beautiful resource.

Creative and beautiful--great for mixed ages
I loved this set of devotions and activities. Our congregation sponsored an event where anyone could work to make one. People were a little intimidated at first because it looks difficult. But, we made sure to provide tools, models and encouragement which allowed people to get started on the scene together, then take it home to finish through Advent. I heard back from folks that children loved "playing" with the figured and the light and that adults appreciated having the opportunity to work on an elegant craft with meaning. Personally, the devotions about dark and light were meaningful. The value of Illustrated Ministry's resources for our congregation comes in the appeal across so many age groups and how it surprises some folks that they enjoy what is offered.