Asking and Receiving

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." 
(Matthew 7:7)

For today's advent calendar activity we focused on the promise that Jesus gives to those that seek God: that He will be found.  The word that sticks out for me in this verse is the word "door".  Every day I seem to have a door shut in my face by one or more of my children - not in the stroppy teenager sense, but in the playful 'peekaboo' sense.  It's a game that Wugs and Dooey play among themselves as well, so I thought they would enjoy playing with a door - knocking on it, hiding behind it or opening it to surprise somebody.

Last month when we were unpacking, I held on to some moving boxes anticipating that they would come in handy for a craft or activity.  I used a long, thin box to make the play door and painted the front and top in dark brown paint.  As the box itself would be flimsy if just left standing alone, I wedged it in between two cabinets, which I pulled out from the wall to create a hidden space behind the door.  The idea was for the play door itself to be bland, but when opened it would lead to a multi-sensory experience of sparkly tinsel, mood lights, draping gold voiles, stars and images of the nativity.

What we used:

Cardboard box, long and thin

Dark brown paint

Cotton reels (for door knobs)

Tinsel

LED mood lights

Gold voile

Star decoration

Images of the nativity

The boys loved the door more than I expected.  Unfortunately they yanked on it so hard that the door knobs fell off, but the door was easy to open without this feature. We've decided to keep it assembled so they can continue to enjoy over the next few days.