Christmas Little Worship Time Devotional - The Baby In The Blanket
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
What are you MOST excited about this Christmastime – the one thing you CAN’T WAIT for?
(Share your own answer to the question here. You may also like to talk about opening your Advent calendar, and how this makes you even MORE excited for Christmas!)
Advent is a season of waiting and looking forward to celebrating Christmas. Our advent calendars help us count down the days to December 25th. It can be hard waiting a month for Christmas to arrive. Imagine waiting a whole LIFETIME, though!
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at some different characters from the Christmas story. This week, we meet two characters who aren’t mentioned in the nativity story, but they were some of the first people to meet Jesus after he was born. They were an old man called Simeon and an old lady called Anna – and they knew a thing or two about waiting! Let’s hear their story now…
PLAY
‘Bible Time: The Baby in the Blanket’
SAY
What a fantastic story! You know, life wasn’t easy for Simeon or Anna or any of God’s people at the time Jesus was born. Their country had been taken over by the Roman army and had become part of the Roman Empire. The Romans did not understand God’s people or show them much respect. In fact, they could be very cruel to them.
How did God’s people feel about this? Confused? Probably. Unhappy? Almost certainly! But Simeon and Anna felt something else: HOPE. They were friends of God. And they believed God had a plan to rescue them – that He would send someone special to them who would make ALL the wrong things right again. It must have been hard waiting. The Bible says that Simeon and Anna were old and had been waiting for YEARS! But God had made them a promise – and they trusted Him COMPLETELY. We can only imagine the happiness in their hearts and the HUGE smiles on their crinkly faces when Simeon and Anna finally held Jesus, the child God had promised.
This year, we’ve learnt a lot about waiting. There are many things that we’ve had to wait patiently for. We may STILL be waiting – waiting and, like God’s people long ago, wondering when the things that seem so wrong will be made right. But the Christmas story is a story of HOPE. It reminds us that, no matter what we might be feeling or facing, God’s promises ALWAYS come true. Just like Simeon and Anna, we can count on God’s faithfulness to us, holding fast to the GREATEST promise of all – that the God who came to be with His children at that first Christmastime is STILL with us TODAY.
PRAY
Dear Father God,
Thank you that You are GOOD. Thank you that You are WITH US. And thank you that we can always, ALWAYS count on You.
This Advent, help us to put our hope in You – just like Simeon and Anna did all those years ago – so that we can be amazed again at Your wonderful goodness and love, today and always.
Amen
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!
