Catholic Snowflakes {Meditating on Jesus Quiet Life}

From the feast day of Jesus Baptism to Candlemas (The Presentation) I often reflect on Jesus’ “quiet life”. Jesus’ “quiet life” is the time when Jesus was a child growing into a man; a time when He was helping St. Joseph build furniture (and probably got many splinters); a time when He helped His mother with chores around the house; a time when He was learning to read and write; a time when He grieved for the loss of His foster-father; and a time when He was content in being here on the earth and living a simple life.

Imagine the great, almighty, and all-powerful God being content with no drama or prestige for 30 years. He didn’t nag his mother and beg her to go out preaching. He waited for her to give Him the okay before He left home and began His mission. He was content to just live a quiet life. That’s humility!

Sadly, we are often very discontented living in the background. We want to be seen, and we have such a hard time being content with the things of a simple life. We are always looking for something more – something greater!  Jesus calls us to the same contented, humility that He had, and that can be very hard for us. We what to be seen and appreciated. Jesus and His thirty hidden years can show us what we are meant to strive for.

I often think of Jesus’ “quiet life” on snowy days. If you have ever sat outside on a snowy day you hear nothing. No, not a thing -no birds, no wind, no cars (unless you are in a city) – just the gentle, soft, sound of snow hitting the ground. The silence is amazing and so peaceful. So with these two topics in mind, my kids and I created snowflakes that have images of Jesus’ “quiet life” depicted on each.

We bought our snowflakes (a pack of 12 foam snowflakes) at the Dollar Tree.

But here are a few websites that teach you how to create snowflakes:

More paper snowflakes (with video)

Snowflakes from Coffee Filters

Making them is always fun, but the foam snowflakes were an easy time-saver.

Feel free to buy or hand-make your own.

You will need:

• Snowflakes – made from paper, foam or other material (ours were about 3 inches around)

• small religious images (download below)

• glue

• scissors

• glitter glue

• hooks or string to hang the snowflakes

Feel free to use the images we used. Download Here:

holyfamilywinter.pdf

Download PDF • 817KB

My kids cut out the images and glued one to the center of each snowflake. Then they used glitter glue to decorate the snowflake and around the image. Once they were dry we added a hook.

We hung our snowflakes on our “seasonal tree”,  which has a rotating and ever changing supply of decorations including our Saint Medals, Mary flowers, St. Valentine Hearts,  Lenten sacrifice crosses, Assumption décor, and more. We really do enjoy our little “tree”!  It’s an easy way to decorate for each season and it allows each of our kids to help create the decorations.  So it’s a joint family effort as the liturgical year slips by.

Our “tree” was created by adding a few flat clear marbles to the bottom of a mason jar. Then we collected sticks and arranged them in the jar to form a tree. It works well, but we need to replace the branches about once a year.

Well, hope you enjoy seeing our Catholic winter décor.

Please, pray for me as I try to be content. You are all in my prayers.

~JenMarie