Daily Advent Reading
This is our Digital Advent Calendar for 2023. We would hope you could join in daily during the season of Advent. Every day’s Advent Gift box will have a new Scripture to read and reflect on. Every Thursday there will be a Children’s Ministry Activity for you and your children. Every Tuesday there will be a question for adults to enjoy and engage on our Facebook page.
Revelation 1:4-7
4 John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne,
5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.
Devotional
In the northern hemisphere December is our darkest month. Because of the winter solstice December also has the least hours of light and conversely the most hours of darkness. Unless you live in a place with a fresh layer of fallen snow that reflects both moon and stars, December may seem a very dark time. That makes it the perfect season time for the season of waiting called Advent. And for the light that is celebrated at Christmas.
The Scottish theologian Donald Macleod, who died earlier this year, once sadly commented,
“Every year the world — and the church — experiences Christmas, that curious amalgam of paganism, commercialism, and Christianity which Western civilization has invented to tide it over the darkest days of the winter. Christmas is a lost opportunity, a time when the world invites the Church to speak and she blushes, smiles, and mutters a few banalities with which the world is already perfectly familiar from its own stock of clichés and nursery rhymes.” (From Glory to Golgotha, 9)
None of us as followers of Jesus should miss the opportunity to make Advent our invitation to allow the light of Jesus to shine from our hearts, hands, and homes.
Children’s Corner
The Nativity
Jesus came to the world in a very special way. He was not born in a castle like you would expect for a king. He was born in a stable, surrounded by barn animals. His bed was a manger, which was used to place hay to feed the animals.
God did all of this on purpose. Jesus was sent to the earth to rescue our hearts and to be our Immanual, “God with us.” Jesus had to be born this special way, so that we can be reminded to humble ourselves before God. To worship God in the sweetest, simplest way.
Creative Nativity Activity:
You can make a nativity with your family from items around your house. You can use sticks from outside or popsicle sticks to make a stable. You can cut a toilet paper roll to make a manger. Find some pine straw or moss outside to place in the manger. Use one of those sticks and wrap it with a piece of cloth, like a towel or shirt. This will represent Jesus. This simple nativity reminds of the night in Bethlehem where Jesus came to shine God’s light and save us all.
If you make one, share it on our Facebook page!
This link is a fun directed drawing of a Nativity scene with the stable, manger, Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.
Merry Christmas First Up Families! May you always remember the Reason for the Season… JESUS!