ADVENT for Kids!
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When my sister Madeline was about 10, she went to a church service with me and my friends and it was for people who didn’t know much about Jesus. Every week we would learn basic things, hoping that all the youth who came who didn’t believe in Jesus might want to start following him. This was so they could go to heaven when they died and live forever!
After a few weeks of coming along with me, Madeline said, “I’ve learnt that church.”
She knew the gospel, she knew about Jesus, she believed and she felt like she didn’t have to hear it over and over again each week.
I remember giving similar feedback on a feedback form - teach us about other things!
But no matter how many other things we learn about and discover about Christianity, we always come back to Jesus. He is the centre of everything and will never be talked about too much!
But, we can get sick of it.
We can grow tired of hearing the same things.
We can get distracted and start focusing our lives on different areas, like our sport, hobbies or friends.
We can stop coming back to Jesus, stop coming to him in prayer, stop celebrating him and all he’s done. We can get out of the habit, we can forget.
This is why the church has traditions ways to keep us focused. Advent is one of those traditions to help keep us focused on Jesus, year after year.
Nowadays most people would say advent means chocolate every day in December until Christmas Day. But that is what the shops tell us.
Advent is a word that actually means arrival or coming.
The tradition of Advent is a time of expectation, waiting patiently and preparing for the celebration of the nativity of Jesus and his second coming.
What do you think?
Do you ever forget to do something that you know is important to do? Or maybe you don’t forget, you just choose not to do it then if you’re caught out you say you “forgot."
Do you ever neglect to:
Brush your teeth?
Clean your room?
Feed your pet?
Do your chores?
Have a shower or a bath?
If we don’t do these things one time and just skip it once, it doesn’t matter so much does it? It isn’t a big deal. But what if we get into the habit of skipping these things? If you forgot to feed your pet every day it would be pretty bad hey.
If you forgot to brush your teeth every day, your teeth would become a disaster!
What about if you never washed? Pongo!
Paul encourages us to keep up the habits, keep believing in Jesus just like you would be in a competition or a running race. Don’t look back, keep on going:
Bible Passage: Philippians 3:13-14, 16
“But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. I run toward the goal, so I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done… But we must keep going in the direction that we are now headed.”
When Paul was about to die he wrote a letter to Timothy:
Bible Passage: 2 Timothy 4:7
“Now the time has come for me to die. My life is like a drink offering being poured out on the altar. I have fought well. I have finished the race, and I have been faithful.”
We need to keep remembering Jesus, keep living for Jesus, keep running the race, right up until the day we die.
Story Time!
When I was younger I used to go on camp Ichthus. I loved it so much, it was the highlight of my year! 6 nights away with friends and fun leaders, spending time playing handball, adventures like rock climbing and abseiling.
I thought about camp all year. I remembered the fun times, and looked forward to more. I would look at the photos I took. There was always a group photo, heaps of craft and a screen printed t-shirt. I would listen to the song Jesus Freak over and over as it always reminded me of camp.
To prepare myself for camp when it was coming up, I remember writing a packing lists every year so that I wouldn’t forget anything. I would spend ages getting ready as I anticipated going on camp. And I would get really sad at the end of the camp, knowing that it was a full 365 days until the next one the following year.
Advent is a tradition invented by the church to help keep us focused on Jesus. Lent is a similar thing too. We count down the days until we can celebrate Jesus’ birthday - his arrival as a human on this world.
We don’t know his actual birthday so we celebrate the 25th December.
Some people eat chocolate every day as a way to count down to the day that they can open their presents.
Some people have an advent calendar that they put cards in with different activities or treats.
Other people read a bible verse every day to count down the days to Christmas.
Church’s aren’t on every day, and Advent first came about with the lighting of a candle every day of December, with some candles being big, and others being small.
For the next 5 episodes, we are going to be counting down the weeks (not days) until Christmas in the way that church’s do, with week 1 starting next week focussing on Hope, followed by Joy, Peace, Love and finally Jesus.
Question Time!
Do you take part in Advent? If yes, what do you do?
Why is it important to look forward to Christmas Day?
