Sunday 6th December

We are now in the season of Advent - a time when we prepare with excitement to celebrate the birth of Jesus and his coming again!

Memory Verse

“But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Luke 1:30-32 (NIV)

Discussion

I wonder, have you ever seen an angel? Can you imagine what it would feel like if an angel appeared to you and told you you were going to have a baby!

Talk with your family about how you might feel if this happened to you. Would you feel scared? Excited? Important?

God could have chosen anyone to be Jesus' mother.

To have such an important job, you might expect God to choose someone like a princess or a daughter from a noble family. But instead, he chose Mary - a young unmarried girl living in a little village called Nazareth. No special title, no great riches, nothing of importance to the world. But she was important to God and he chose her to do the most important job ever, to give birth to His Son. Wow!

God chooses each one of us to do an important task too. The Bible says:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:16).

This tells us that we are tasked to share the good news of Jesus and God's love to the whole world. Can you think of a more important job than that?

This year, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, let's answer God's call just as Mary did.

"I am the Lord's servant, Let it be with me just as you have said." (Luke 1:38).

Activities

1. To help us share the message of God's love this Christmas, have a go at making some messenger angels to send to your friends, family and neighbours.

Here is a video showing you how to make a simple paper angel (be careful not to cut the angel's head off as I did!)

The template is here:

You can write messages of hope on them and decorate any way you like.

2. As another activity, have a go at acting out this scene from the Nativity Story.

I challenge you to dress up as Mary and Angel Gabriel and act out delivering this special message. Get creative using pillowcases, scarves and bedsheets!

Worship Song

Finally, here is a festive song to have a dance to whilst you have your angel costumes on.

Prayer

Here is a prayer that you could pray together:

Dear God, thank you for this story about how you sent the angel Gabriel with a special message to Mary. Thank you also for giving us the task of taking the message of Jesus and his love for all the world. Amen.