The Jesus Birthday Box - A Christmas Family Devotion
Parent Introduction: With images of Santa and promises of new toys
filling our children’s imaginations since late October, it is easy for
Christmas to lose its true meaning. This
month’s devotion is designed to help your family have a tangible way to remind
one another that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of our Savior. It is Jesus’ birthday celebration. Birthdays are something even the youngest
child can understand. They understand that
the birthday person should be the one who receives a gift.
The Jesus Birthday Box will be a place for your family to
record donations and gifts of service done in Christ’s name this season. It is helpful for parents to prayerfully
establish a budget for your donations prior to starting. Once your budget is established, work
together as a family to decide how to use it.
For example a $100 budget could:
·
Buy a gift for an Angel Tree Child ($25)
·
Sponsor 5
people to have Christmas Dinner at your local rescue mission ($10)
·
Donate a bag of canned goods for a food bank
($15)
·
Give a flock of geese through Heifer International
($20)
·
Provide phone cards to our servicemen and women
to call home for the holidays through the USO ($25)
·
Visit a local nursing home and pass out candy
canes ($5)
It's pretty amazing the lives that $100 can touch.
If you have younger children at home, you may want to check out the new picture book The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie. (check the bottom of the devotion for how you can win a copy!)
Materials you will
need:
-
Bible
-
A box. It can be a small cardboard box or a wooden
box found at a craft store. It should be
at least 6 inches square.
-
Decorations
for your box: Paint, stickers,
glitter glue, wrapping paper – whatever you have. Our now ten year old made our box when she was four. She cut up wrapping paper and glued it all over. Any form of decoration will do.
-
Paper
-
Pens and
pencils
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Introduction: What is your favorite part of your
birthday? What did you do on your last
birthday? Did you have a party? Receive gifts?
Do something special? (Let each family member share). I am going to read a short story about a boy
named William and his unfortunate birthday.
The Tale of William’s Birthday
There was once a boy name William who was very excited for
his birthday. His family told him that
they could not wait for his birthday to come, they were excited as well. William counted the days down until the day before
his birthday arrived. His mom had
decorated the house, and cleaned it until it shone. William’s dad had purchased
special gifts, wrapped them up and laid them out on the kitchen table. William’s sister was even excited. She said she could not wait until everyone
showed up for the party.
The big day finally arrived.
William bounced out of bed and ran to find his family. He found his mom first. She was busy making a big breakfast. “William can’t you see I am busy, get out of
the kitchen,”she snapped. William was
sad that his mom had not wished him a happy birthday, but he could see she was very
busy. He found his dad at the kitchen
table. William was shocked to see that
his dad was tearing open all of the beautiful gifts. One by one, William’s dad opened the presents
and shouted with delight. It was the
complete set of tools that his dad had been wanting for a long time. William’s dad was so busy with his new tools,
he never even noticed his son.
William heard the doorbell ring and went to answer the door.
His sister came running by him shouting, “They’re here! They’re here!”
William assumed it must be his friends arriving for the party. When he opened the door, he was horrified to
see only his sister’s friends. They ran
by him with a high pitched squeal. The
group of girls ran to his sister’s room and locked the door behind them.
William could not believe his family. No one seemed to remember it was his
birthday. Everyone only cared about
themselves. William went back to his
bedroom alone. He thought maybe next year his birthday would be better.
The End.
Discussion:
·
How do you think William felt about his
birthday?
·
What made William’s birthday so sad to him?
·
What could each of his family members done
instead to celebrate William’s birthday in a better way?
The Tale of William’s Birthday may seem like a ridiculous
story, one that would never happen to anyone, but it’s actually a true story in
ways. The Tale of William’s Birthday is
really a story about Christmas. Christmas
is meant to be a day when we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, but in many homes these
days, Jesus is just like William- left out, ignored, and forgotten about. While there is nothing wrong with exchanging
Christmas gifts with each other, or enjoying the many celebrations that come
along with the Christmas season, we don’t want to leave Jesus out of His own
birthday celebration. But how can we
best celebrate Jesus’ birthday? Two scripture
readings show us how.
Reading: If we are going to celebrate someone’s
birthday, we should know what they think is important and what they would like
us to give them. Listen to the first
reading to hear what Jesus says is important.
Matthew 22:36-39
Jesus does not want a new computer game or sweater with
Santa on it. But he does tell us things
that he wants us to do for him. Listen
to our reading to hear his wish list.
Matthew 25: 35-40
Discussion:
·
In the first reading, what did Jesus say were
the two greatest commandments?
·
In the second reading, Jesus said if we helped
people in need we were doing it for Him.
What examples did he give?
·
In our two readings, Jesus tells us what is
important to Him and what we can do for him.
This is His birthday wish list. What
ways could our family do those things this Christmas season?
Activity: Make a Jesus Birthday Box. Our
family is going to make a box called the Jesus Birthday Box. Between now and
Christmas whenever we do something in honor of Jesus’ birthday we will write
down what we did (or draw a picture) and put it in our box. On Christmas we will open the box and read
all the “gifts” for Jesus.
1.
Decorate
your box as desired.
2.
Make a list as a family of all the ideas you
would like to do this Christmas for Jesus. ( Remember the first reading? Jesus says to love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind is the greatest
commandment. How will your family
worship and love the Lord this Christmas?
Put that on your list too!)
3.
Looking at your family’s calendar and budget,
decide as a family what gifts you will plan on giving/doing for Jesus.
Prayer: Close your family devotion time with
prayer. Include those you will be
blessing this Christmas season in your prayer.
Dear Jesus, We thank you for this time together to read your
Holy Word and think of ways that we can honor you this Christmas season. Lord we ask you to open our eyes to those
that you would have us serve. Multiple
our time and resources so we can do the most good in your name this
Christmas. Precious Jesus we thank you
for coming to earth to be our Savior.
Help us to keep you in our hearts and on our minds during this special
season of the year. In your name we
pray, Amen.
Christmas Day Instructions: As you approach Christmas Day, set aside some time in your schedule to open your Jesus Birthday Box. Let everyone know when you will do this. For our family, we have a birthday cake for Jesus after Christmas dinner and then we open His gifts. Friends of ours open Jesus' gifts as the last gift under thier tree before they have thier Christmas brunch. Your family may want to include reading the account of Jesus' birth found in Luke 2:1-20.
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Win A Copy of The Sparkle Box!
To encourage one another with ideas of how to celebrate Christ's birth this Christmas, I am holding a giveaway of a copy of The Sparkle Box. Each post will have a question at the bottom. Leave a comment and be entered in the drawing. You can be entered multiple times. I will draw the winner on Dec 17th.
Today's Question: How is your family planning on helping others this Christmas season?
