There’s no doubt that the kids are excited about Christmas coming. We’ve heard a lot about gifts so we decided to talk about gifts too! From 3 year olds to 5th graders we learned about how that very first Christmas, God sent his son as the very best gift of all.
Bubba (the puppet) had been Christmas shopping and was excited to tell the PreK/K students about the gift he
bought for his mother. It was a very expensive half gallon of perfume – Channel 13.5 (as opposed to Chanel No.5) that he’d bought at TSC (Tractor Supply Company). He’d looked at Chanel No.5 but it was such a tiny bottle and he wanted to let his mom know that he loved her BIG! He wanted to give her the very best gift in the world! And that’s what the wisemen wanted to do too. They wanted to give Jesus the very best gifts they could think of so he would know how much they loved him. How can we give our best gifts to God? When we love God it shows through what we do for others. Students talked about some things they could do for others. If you have a PreK/K student, have you seen them loving God this past week? Of course, God gave us the very best gift of all – God gave us Jesus.
In the 1st – 3rd grades Luther was looking cool this Sunday, because he’d heard God was choosing people to meet with personally. He was sure you needed to be cool to be chosen. The clues Mr. King and a student volunteer found were a megaphone and a bale of straw as they tried to figure out who it was in the Christmas story this week who had a real life God Sighting. With questions like “Who knows how God announced the birth of Jesus?” And “What did straw have to do with our God sighting?” it wasn’t long before the students knew that the person who had a real life God sighting was a shepherd and that the shepherds were looking for baby Jesus in a stable. Luther thought this was highly unlikely, I mean shepherds really aren’t very cool, but luckily, a shepherd showed up to tell just what they experienced the night of Jesus’ birth. It was pretty miraculous and involved fear and trembling; angels singing and a search through the barns of Bethlehem. When they did find baby Jesus, God’s own son, the long expected Messiah, they were so excited that they told everyone they saw. And the best part? God’s message wasn’t just for the shepherds. God’s message was for us too! We can welcome Jesus into our world and tell others about him – just like the shepherds.
Gen R. Osity had a powerful message this week for the 4th & 5th graders. It was what gift
giving is really all about. Have you ever given someone a gift and had them put it aside or pick up another gift and rave about how cool it is? God gave us the most amazing gift of all. He gave us the gift of his son Jesus. Are we raving about it? How should we respond? Students watched a DVD about a teenage boy who had a friend staying with his family the week before Christmas. He thought some of his family’s Christmas traditions were a little too “churchy” for his friend and tried to make other plans to avoid them. But when a favorite uncle comes to read the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke and Matthew his friend doesn’t seem bothered at all and in fact has some very practical questions. Ever had this happen in your family? Do you think of Jesus as a gift? How are you going to receive the gift of Jesus this year?
GOAT UPDATE!
With our Sunday School offerings and another family Christmas gift, our herd has grown to 20 goats for people in Honduras or Tanzania. If you would like a last minute Christmas gift – goats are available! We’d be glad to provide you with a personalized certificate to wrap for Christmas.
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