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An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light and Darkness

An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light and Darkness

An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light and Darkness is a digital product. No physical product will be shipped. Your purchase includes one Single-Entity license. Learn about Multi-Entity licenses here.

$9.99 - $69.99
$49.99
$9.99 - $69.99
$49.99
Purchase Type: Ministry Use (Church Size: 101–500 members)
FREE SAMPLE: If you'd like a free sample of this resource, please click here.
ADVENT FOR FAMILIES: What is it? What's included?
Our Illustrated Advent for Families is an opportunity for families to take time each week during the Advent season to be intentional and focus on their faith. You'll receive five weekly family devotions, coloring & activity pages, and an Advent calendar.

Who is it for?
Most churches will purchase this and give it to families in their community. It's also great for individual families to purchase to use on their own. We've also had churches with intergenerational Advent programming use it for multi-age gatherings.

An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness is an opportunity for families to take time each week during the Advent season to be intentional and focus on their faith.

These weekly reflections explore the theme of light and darkness in Advent scriptures. How we understand these ideas affect the way we view God, our faith, and our world. Inspired by Barbara Brown Taylor's book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, we re-frame traditional understandings of light as good and darkness as bad or evil.

Each week, there is a suggested scripture to read, a short reflection, discussion questions, an activity (with lots of coloring opportunities), and a prayer to explore the theme of light and darkness working in balance in our lives.

What You Will Receive

  • Five Family Devotions: Five weeks of family devotions that explore the theme of light and darkness in Advent scriptures that includes a suggested scripture to read, a short reflection, discussion questions, an activity, and a prayer.
  • Illustrated Christmas Shadow Box Theater: Together, you will follow simple directions to build your Illustrated Christmas Shadow Box Theater and use it to act out the story of Christmas using light and shadows.
  • Advent Calendar: Our Advent Calendar starts on December 1, and each day brings an opportunity to complete a simple activity as a family. We consider families' busy lives, so the activities are short and meaningful without distracting from the real purpose—family time. We include a full-color version you can print out and a black and white version that families can color together as they complete daily activities.

How You Can Use It

Churches often purchase this and send it home with parents to use during Advent. An Illustrated Advent for Families also makes a great addition to the Advent boxes you might be putting together to send home to families. One could also adapt it to use for a Sunday School program.

Purchase Details

After completing your purchase, you'll instantly receive a link to download the PDF. You will find everything you need in the PDF, and then you can share it with the families in your church and community. Please refer to the information included in the PDF on best practices for sharing our products with your community.

Weekly Themes

Below is a list of the themes for each of the five weekly devotionals:

  • Week 1: The Darkness did not Overcome
    Scripture: John 1:1–5
  • Week 2: Vision in the Night
    Scripture: Matthew 1:18b–24a, Luke 1:26b–38
  • Week 3: Overwhelming Light
    Scripture: Luke 2:2–14
  • Week 4: Readjusting to the Dark
    Scripture: Luke 2:15–20
  • Christmas: The Light Has Entered the World
    Scripture: Read Luke 2:1–7 on Christmas Eve and John 1:1–5 on Christmas Day

Looking for other In Light & Darkness resources? Check these out!

Customer Reviews

Based on 6 reviews
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Robin W.

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!

P
Page P.

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.

E
Erin W.

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.

M
Michelle G.

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.

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Amy L.

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.

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