Advent In Plain Sight; A Devotion Through Ten Objects

Jill J. Duffield

Whenever I begin introducing a new topic to a group of learners, I spend a significant amount of time activating everyone’s background knowledge. What experiences have we had with it? What do we wonder? What would life be without it? All sorts of questions, delivered with concrete examples (the more tangible, the better), combine to deliver a payoff with the learners- they are ready to take what they know and add to it. I have found that time spent relating existing knowledge to new ideas increases curiosity, retention, and application. Basically, the return on investment makes this practice really, really worthwhile. When Advent In Plain Sight; A Devotion Through Ten Objects by Jill J. Duffield landed on my desk from the publisher, my curiosity was piqued. A devotional? For adults? That connects everyday objects to messianic prophesy? This is definitely a concept I can get behind!

This devotional is organized into ten sections; the four weeks of Advent, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, the first week of Christmas, the second week of Christmas, Epiphany, and the Baptism of our Lord. Each section has an everyday object that is woven throughout the readings, connecting the Scripture and questions to items common to our day-to-day lives. Each day’s reading begins with Scripture, a devotion, reflection questions, and a prayer. Each day’s reading is about a page and a half in length, which is not onerous for most adults. The everyday object is repeated with each devotion, bringing it back into the forefront. It makes it easy for the reader to pick it back up each day and continue on with focus. I really appreciate how this resource goes through the entirety of the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany seasons- not many of these exist!

This resource has much potential for use in adult faith formation. The price is not prohibitive, so using it as the spine for an adult Advent care package would be lovely. Include the book, a handheld frame from a photo booth, and a small blank notebook, along with a sticky note that has a congregation-wide hashtag (e.g. #adventinplainsight). Have everyone read along daily, snapping photos on their phones that feature that week’s everyday object and uploading it to your church’s Instagram page with the hashtag. It gives everyone something to do individually and corporately. You could also use this as the focus of an adult faith formation class for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. Create a group mural of photos of the objects as you meet each week and discuss a few of the questions included that week. Imagine the possibility of using this to spur on an Advent mission project! I would focus either on the cloth or the water and have people work together to fill a dresser with clothes needed for a newborn and donating it to a local pregnancy crisis center (cloth) or having a loose change offering each week that went to benefit clean water initiatives in places that are struggling with this issue (water). None of these ideas are difficult to execute, even if you are a one-person staff (as I am). If you’re ready for a fresh way to approach these seasons and make connections with what people already know so they can grow deeper roots in their faith, give this resource a gander. It may be just what you are looking for.