Christmas Promises Page 1 of 16 CHRISTMAS PROMISES How to use this resource This resource is written for those involved with all-age worship and ideas can be adapted for other uses. It comes in four parts. The first part has an optional reflection and a range of questions on the theme of promises. The second part has a range of suggested activities to help explore the theme (you pick which you would like to to do). The third part is an act of worship which includes the Christmas Story. The fourth part is a meal suggestion. The resource is provided by the Meaningful Chocolate Company and incorporates the beautiful illustrations of Alida Massari from the Meaningful Chocolate Advent Calendar 2016. See realadvent.co.uk. The resource aims to illustrate: What a promise is Different ways of making a promise That God never breaks His promises How God s special Christmas promises announced the coming of Jesus hundreds of years before
Christmas Promises Page 2 of 16 Theme It s a YES The theme for this resource is 2 Corinthians 1:20 no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ (New International Version) Reflection Have you realised that Jesus birth was no accident? It was long awaited: an answer to 700+ years of promises made by God through his prophets. In Jesus, God has demonstrated that not only does He love us unconditionally, but that He has the ability to keep His promises. If He says so, it will always be a resounding YES event! Why? Because He can. It s His world. His promises are different to ours. That s why God says in Matthew 5:34; But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, 'By heaven!' because heaven is God's throne (New Living Translation), Is He telling us that we shouldn t make promises? Not at all! Promises are important and we should be committed to those we make (whether they are yes or no ) but unlike God, our promises can be blown apart by the wind of circumstances. We humans are not on the throne. We don t have the power to make our promises binding. The world isn t ours. But now Jesus has come and we see God s promises of a Saviour King fulfilled. Starting Questions How do we respond? How do we demonstrate to others that promises are really important? Does God keep His promises? Do you keep yours?
Christmas Promises Page 3 of 16 ACTIVITY 1 Seals & Scrolls We re going to explore the world of PROMISES and find out what that means and how serious we should be about making promises. There are loads of things to do and ideas to explore. (Note to leader: choose from the following activities to help explore the theme of promise.) Make your own promise on a scroll and design a seal stamp to finish, roll up and tie with ribbon or string. YOU WILL NEED: A piece of paper to make a scroll you can make it old-looking by rubbing some black powder paint around the edges and tearing and cutting the edges. If you want to print off a sheet of the above you will find it in the RESOURCES FOLDER as Promise-Scroll.pdf. Thick paint in at least two colours Shallow trays big enough to dip stamps into paint Some potatoes cut in half and a few simple tools to cut out circles and gauge out shapes. Alternatively, collect small objects that will make stamps in their own right Variety of cutters Start by pressing a small cutter into the potato, taking a slice a few millimetres in depth from the edge to the shape cut into the surface. This creates a simple circular stamp which can then be cut away further to make a more complex shape. Help to write a promise on the sheet of paper, make your mark, wait for the paint to dry, roll up the scroll and secure with ribbon or string
Christmas Promises Page 4 of 16 Talk about: writing letters and how your signature is important. Some people can t write and they make their mark. Some important people like Kings and Queens have a seal. It s a special stamp a sign of power and authority. A promise or a command with a seal is very important. Give your promise to someone to open at Christmas.
Christmas Promises Page 5 of 16 ACTIVITY 2 A promise on a Star-flower Make a simple flower with some of God s promises from Luke 1:32-34 about the birth of Jesus. YOU WILL NEED: A4 Card printed from template (Find the template Promise-on-a-star.pdf) Craft scissors Straws Talk about: how God has made lots of promises to his people. He even promised that He would save our world by sending His son. Talk about some of God s promises.
Christmas Promises Page 6 of 16 ACTIVITY 3 Tying the Knot Work together to pit your strength against an opposing team with a Tug of War! YOU WILL NEED: Tug of war rope Lots of space! 2 short pieces of rope Talk about: The strength of people working as a team. You may have heard people talk about someone getting married and they say they are tying the knot. What do you think it means? What is the significance of two pieces of material/rope being tied together? The phrase comes from a tradition called handfasting. It involves fastening a couple's hands together with cording, ribbon, twine or a silk sash during the wedding ceremony when prayers and vows are exchanged. Another tradition is that sailors and soldiers would send a piece of rope to their sweethearts when they wanted to get married. If the rope returned with a knot, it meant yes. What sort of promises do you feel people who love one another should make? What would your promise be to someone you love?
Christmas Promises Page 7 of 16 ACTIVITY 4 Make a promise jar Craft idea: Make a decorated jar full of promise slips as a Christmas present to someone. (These are like little vouchers which can be pulled out at random and claimed as a gift e.g. I promise to make you a cup of tea. YOU WILL NEED: Glass jars Ribbons Glue and spreaders Craft papers Slips of paper Felt tips and pens Look up promise jar ideas on the internet there are hundreds of great ideas!
Christmas Promises Page 8 of 16 ACTIVITY 5 Promise bracelet Craft idea: Make a simple woven promise bracelet or necklace as a present and gift the person with a promise too. YOU WILL NEED: Long strips of craft paper of different colours Felt tip pens Metal ended treasury tags or string to open or close bracelet Glue Scissors Talk about: wedding rings and how they are exchanged as a promise to each other. This bracelet is based on the two strip folded plait below. Children very quickly get the hang of this simple sequence. If your strips of card are too short, glue another two strips on to the end and keep plaiting. Fold over blue strip Glue strips together Fold over red strip Fold over blue strip
Christmas Promises Page 9 of 16 ACTIVITY 6 A promise to God s world Craft idea: Bird feeder YOU WILL NEED: Bird seed Pine cones String Hard fat e.g. Lard, butter, block margarine To make: Secure the pine cone with enough string that you can hang up outside later. Using a knife, spread fat into and around the pine cone. To finish, roll and dip the cone into a dish of bird seed. Either hang them outside immediately or have handy boxes or trays to take home (these are messy!). Talk about: God promises He gives food to every living thing (Psalm 136:25-26) God has provided the means for us to feed ourselves. Sometimes, though, when food is scarce, we need to help. Do you think we should look after the things that God has made? How do we do that? What promise can you make to care for God s world?
Christmas Promises Page 10 of 16 ACTIVITY 7 Emoji promise Game idea: Crack the code You will need printed copies of the Emoji-Code.pdf template from the RESOURCES folder Pens Bibles A promise from Genesis 8:22 As long as the earth remains there will be seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. Talk about: How long does a promise last? When should you break a promise? How long does God keep his promises for? You may like to extend this activity by asking children to make up their own emoji promise.
Christmas Promises Page 11 of 16 Celebration and worship YOU WILL NEED: Three volunteers to dress as prophets simple long tunics and long beards. There are some great yarn beards out there check out ideas on Pinterest. They carry a scroll with a promise from God, which they unroll and read in a very commanding voice. PowerPoint presentation of the Christmas story from the RESOURCES folder Some of the promises from the activities I want you to meet some prophets. Do you know what a prophet is? It s someone who has a very special job and a very special boss. The boss is God. A prophet s job is to bring God s messages to people. When God speaks He never gets things wrong. He always keeps His promises. So, shall we listen to some of God s promises? Now, here are two prophets Isaiah and Micah. They both lived hundreds of years before Jesus was born and the Christmas story was told. This is what God told them to say. Isaiah opens the scroll. God says, Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She ll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). He looks thoughtful and says, That means that God is going to send a baby who will have a name meaning He is God! Wow. And Micah. What did God tell you? Micah unrolls his scroll and says But you, Bethlehem, David s country. from you will come the leader who will shepherd/rule Israel. Micah, strokes his beard and thinks. He says That means our King is going to come from the town of Bethlehem. Can you remember what God wants us to look out for? A girl who is pregnant but doesn t have a partner and will give birth to God s Son. The baby will be born in Bethlehem Shall we see if God kept his promises? (Use Christmas-Story.pptx from Resources folder)
Christmas Promises Page 12 of 16 This is the story of the birth of Jesus. He s not an ordinary baby. Not at all. Nothing about Him is ordinary. More than 2,000 years ago in the Holy Land, the people were very sad because their country was ruled by the Romans. The people hated being ruled by the Romans. They wanted God to send them a king to free them. Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. One day, an angel called Gabriel visited Mary. Meeting an angel was very scary but Gabriel told Mary not to be afraid! You are going to have a baby, the angel told Mary. He will be called Jesus; He will be the one that everyone is waiting for the promised King. Joseph was worried when he heard that Mary was pregnant. He was upset because he didn t know if he should marry Mary. An angel came to Joseph and told him not to be afraid to marry Mary, saying: She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus. One day the Roman Emperor decided to count everyone and find out how much money they had! He ordered everyone to go to their place of birth. Mary and Joseph had to travel to the town of Bethlehem to be counted. It was busy and bustling due to everyone moving there to be counted
Christmas Promises Page 13 of 16 Hundreds of miles away, wise men saw a special star in the sky. That star means a new king, they said excitedly. They saddled their camels and left right away. The star shone brightly as the wise men followed it. What do you give a new King as a present? The wise men packed some very unusual presents. One wise man brought a gift of gold for the new King. Another wise man brought frankincense which was used when praying to God. The last wise man carried a gift of myrrh for the baby, a bitter and spicy perfume. The wise men travelled to King Herod s palace because they thought that is where the new King would be born. King Herod was surprised to hear who the wise men were looking for. A new King? he said, I d love to meet him. Herod was a very bad king and he wasn t to be trusted. He did not want Jesus to be king and wanted to get rid of the baby. If you find that baby let me know, he said to the wise men. The star led the wise men on to Bethlehem. In a dream, an angel told the wise men not to go back to King Herod.
Christmas Promises Page 14 of 16 Mary and Joseph and lots of other travellers had arrived in their home town of Bethlehem for the census. There weren t enough rooms for everybody. My wife is having a baby, Joseph begged. Isn t there a bit of room for us? Mary and Joseph were so tired they would have slept almost anywhere. At last, someone said, I have a stable. It s not very clean but it s warm and dry. You will have to lie down with the animals. But then there was something else - the baby was coming! It was a quiet night in the hills above Bethlehem. There were shepherds looking after their sheep. An angel appeared. Another angel appeared and then the whole night sky lit up with angels singing and praising God for the birth of the new born King. We ve got to see him, the shepherds all said. Without leaving anyone to guard the sheep, off they went down the hillside, towards the lights of Bethlehem.
Christmas Promises Page 15 of 16 The shepherds did not expect to find the new King in a stable with sheep and cows! But they knew this would be no ordinary baby. He was their new king, the One they had been waiting for. Where were you born? Bet it wasn t in a stable. That s where Jesus was born with smelly animals all around him. The shepherds were poor and smelled a bit. The wise men were rich and important. It doesn t matter. All that matters is that they came to see Jesus. They wanted to say, You are my King, to kneel and thank Him for coming. Do you think God kept his promises? I do. Do you think we will keep our promises? Shall we look at some of them? Let s finish by thanking God for bringing Jesus. Short prayer.
Christmas Promises Page 16 of 16 Ideas for songs Kid s Worship Songs: Standing on the Promises www.godskidsworship.com You Never Change True are Your Promises Chris Tomlin http://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/unchanging/ Every Promise of Your Word Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend http://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/every-promise-of-your-word Joy has dawned upon the world Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend http://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/joy-has-dawned Meal suggestion To keep the Christmas story theme Shepherd s pie* (catering made easy) and served by some shepherds! Star-shaped gingerbread and biscuits, Star cut pastry sweet tarts * Remember vegetarian and gluten free options