Christmas Little Worship Time Devotional - Mary's Story
Throughout Advent we're gearing up to celebrate Christmas with a series of 4 themed Little Worship Time devotionals. Designed for you to lead as part of your Sunday School, within an all-age kids ministry slot, or at home with your family they are the perfect way to introduce the characters and themes of the Christmas story to your little worshippers.
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SAY
Put your hand up if you’ve ever had BIG plans for something – only to find that things didn’t turn out QUITE as you’d expected?
What was it?
How did this make you feel?
You may also like to share your own experience of a time when things didn’t go according to plan.
It’s the time of year when we look again at the wonderful story of Christmas. Over the coming weeks, we’ll look at some of the characters from the story. Today, we’re thinking about Mary. She was a young lady with some very BIG and exciting plans! But then one day, she met somebody who told her that God had something a little different in mind for her. Let’s watch the story and find out what that was…
PLAY
‘Bible Time: An Awesome Woman’
SAY
What a fantastic story! I wonder what mixture of emotions Mary felt as she listened to the angel Gabriel? One day she’s dreaming of marrying Joseph and settling down. Then the next day, out of the blue, an angel arrives and tells her that God has something she NEVER could have imagined in store for her – that, very soon, she’d be carrying a special baby sent by God. It would be hard to explain this to Joseph and those closest to her. They might not understand. They might turn their back on her because of it. And even if they stood by her - wow! What an ENORMOUS responsibility!
Of course, we know the end of the story. It’s why we celebrate Christmas. This baby, Jesus, was God’s great gift to us, sent so that we could be friends with God FOREVER. But Mary didn’t. She only knew that moment, filled with wonder and with questions. It took a lot of courage for her to say ‘YES’ – to say those wonderful words, ‘May it happen to me as you have said’.* This certainly wasn’t what she’d imagined or expected. But she chose to trust God every step of the way.
I expect a lot of us had plans for this year – some big, some small. Some of those plans will have been cancelled, or postponed, or changed. This might have left us feeling all kinds of different emotions – especially since we still don’t know what the next year might bring! But the Christmas story reminds us that even though things may not turn out quite as we’d expected, God ALWAYS has a plan, and it’s ALWAYS good. Just like Mary, we can completely trust Him, knowing ONE HUNDRED PERCENT that – whatever else may change – His BIG love for us never will.
PRAY
Dear Father God,
Thank you that You are GOOD. Thank you that You LOVE US. And thank you that this NEVER EVER changes.
This Advent, help us to put our trust in You – just like Mary did all those years ago – so that we can be amazed again at Your wonderful goodness and love, today and always.
Amen.
*Luke 1:38, GNT
Keep and eye out next week for the second in our series of Bible Time Christmas devotionals. In the meantime, if you're looking for the perfect present for the young person in your life then hop over to our shop for some great value gift ideas!
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