We want to celebrate the Advent season together with your family as we prepare to remember the birth of Jesus. At each Adventureland sign-in
station, we have one gift for each family. We want to encourage you to pick your gift up at the station of the youngest member of your family. For this second week, we want to think together about the “Trust and Love” that Jesus came to bring. Hope these ideas work for you and yours!
- Gifts From the Past – In a gift bag or box, place the name of Jesus, or a picture of Jesus – don’t let the kids see it. As a family, take turns playing charades and act out your favorite gift from a past Christmas. See if the other family members can guess what it is. Ask the kids what happens to gifts after you’ve had them for a long time – they quit working, they break or parts get lost. Bring out the gift and ask the kids to guess what they think is inside the box. When you open it, explain how Jesus is a gift that will last forever. We can enjoy the gifts we get this Christmas, we can be thankful for them, we can share them, but we know, they won’t last forever. God’s gift is too wonderful for words – He gave His Son Jesus. Then, have one of your grade schoolers look up 2 Corinthians 9:15 – “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
- Do You Trust Me? – Set up a simple obstacles course in your family room (pillows, chairs, boxes, nothing breakable!). Blindfold one of your children and have someone talk them through the course. Then, slightly rearrange the course and have Mom and Dad take a turn – the kids will love directing you! Ask each person how they felt when they walked through the course blindfolded? Why was it important to listen and to trust what the other person told you to do? God loved us so much, He sent His Son Jesus, to make a way for us to come back to God. God wants to direct our paths and show us the way we should go. We need to trust in God’s love for us. Read John 1:1 – 5, 14 together as a family.
- Great Big Love – Have your kids create and decorate a great, big red heart. Throughout the week, think through the alphabet together as a family of things that we know and love about Jesus. “A” could be “Almighty God”, and here are two others for this week – “Trust” and “Love”. Did you get from A to Z?
- Candy Cane Clues – They’re in all the stores, but purchase the original red and white candy canes. Find a Christmas story book, break out the candy canes and after the story, have the kids think of ways a candy cane might remind them of the Christmas story. It looks like a “J”, the first letter of Jesus’ name. It is shaped like a shepherd’s crook – they were the first ones to hear about Jesus’ birth! The color red reminds us that Jesus died for us. White reminds us of the clean heart He gives us when we ask Him to forgive us. It tastes sweet, and the Christmas story is the sweetest story ever told!
Because Children Matter,
Carol A. Wiebe
