November 06, 2025

The Art of Advent with Sylvie Vanhoozer

43 minutes

How can decorating a Crèche draw us to a place of divine encounter?

We are approaching yet another Advent season, a season of making space to wait on God.

Maybe you’re good at making that space. Like a cat, you have no problem flopping down where you are, stretching your legs, and letting Jesus take the wheel.

Or maybe you’re addicted—like most of us—to work, to control and productivity, to entertainment, perhaps even to podcasts!—and Advent feels like a struggle.

Or maybe you’re working three jobs because you have to, and maintaining an interior grasp of God’s love, in the midst of the crazy, is what slowing down means for you.

But sometimes being still is not something you choose. It’s thrust upon you. When you’re not able to go anywhere or do anything much, Advent is life, whether you ask for it or not.

That’s where our guest today found herself. And in that long, involuntary long season of Advent, as she reflected on her life and grew a garden, the journey brought her to writing a little Advent book about nature, the seasons, and the tradition of manger scenes where she grew up in Provence, France, and how she found Jesus there.

Our guest today is Sylvie Vanhoozer. Sylvie is a certified botanic artist, retired French teacher, and author of two books of nature sketches and meditations: The Art of Living in Advent: 28 Days of Joyful Waiting as well as The Art of Living in Season: A Year of Reflections for Everyday Saints.

Here are some French words we use today:

Crèche: manger scene

Santons: “little saints”; clay figurines based on ordinary people

Terroir: a people’s land and all the life in it

Now remind yourself where you’ve stored away your Nativity set. Because after this conversation you might want to get it out. Perhaps it will help you remember, receive, and share the gospel over the next few weeks.