Rebecca S. Ramsey's Blog, page 25

Getting Ready for Christmas!

This children’s sermon was given December 23, 2018, to accompany a sermon based on Luke 2: 1-6. The minister preaching the main sermon had asked that I help kids think about the behind the scenes work that makes Christmas happen at their homes and how we all prepare.

Good morning, girls and boys. Christmas is almost here! Are you ready?

Getting ready for Christmas is exactly what I’ve been thinking about lately- how we get ready, how we prepare- and what getting ready does for us. So I brought a bag of things I use for getting ready, and I wonder if you can guess what each thing is used for- how they help me get ready for Christmas.

Now I take one thing out of the bag at a time and have the children tell me how each item can be useful in preparing for Christmas. The bag includes: tape, gift tags, and advent guide, a Family advent guide, a calendar, an egg beater, a wallet or checkbook or credit card, a Bible, a nativity piece, a running shoe, a Christmas children’s book.

Getting ready for Christmas is itself a gift to us, because it’s a way to spend time thinking about God and Jesus and the people we love as we prepare. We can walk through the mystery of Christmas and really notice what Christmas is about- falling more deeply in love with God. I hope as you get ready, you spend time not in crazy busy-ness, but in enjoying the people around you and the God who loves you so much that God sent Jesus to you too.

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for the gift of getting ready. As we spend time preparing for Christmas, help us fall even more deeply in love with you. We love you, God. Amen

Jesus Calls the Disciples

Welcome to Jesus Calls the Disciples, our story for Jan 13, which focuses on two of the Jesus stories Godly Play doesn’t cover: the calling of the fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James and John, and the calling of Levi (also called Matthew.)



I love these two stories for many reasons. First, I think it’s so valuable for the children to begin to explore what exactly a disciple is and that Jesus calls us all to come along with him and help him do his work. The fisherman miracle is so powerful, and it introduces the beautiful idea that Jesus calls ordinary people to bring in others to join the faith journey. (By the way, it’s also a great time to talk about why Christians use the fish symbol, if you want.) The Levi story helps us remember that we are all broken, that nobody is “good enough” to be called by God, yet God still calls each of us.

To inspire the kids–and for extra fun– I’ll have a basket of goldfish crackers in your rooms. There should also be a fishing net. Have fun!

IDEAS FOR THE CREATE A GIFT FOR GOD TIME

Re-create the Story

Children could retell the story in many ways:

1. Two Dimensionally:

Besides drawing or painting story scenes, a class could work on creating a scene for each of the stories together. I can imagine a big boat on butcher paper and the kids making lots of fish, the fishermen, a net, Jesus, etc.  You could also create the banquet scene: Levi, Jesus, his friends, and tables heavily laden with food (from magazine collage pictures or drawn.)

2. Three Dimensionally: Make items from the story (a boat, a banquet table with clay or

felt, boats (paper folding) or felt, lake, money bag,

Here’s a site with a plan to make 3D boats:

http://www.sundayschoolkids.com/activities-nt/1-nt-boat-for-jesus-instru.htm

Or you could talk about the story as you fish, like these children in our third grade class.

Make Artwork Focused On Being a Disciple

1. You could suggest the children head their paper: Disciples Do Jesus’ Work. Then they could draw or watercolor or do a collage showing how we do Jesus’s work: helping others, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, being a peacemaker, sharing what we have, etc.

2. You could focus on the fishermen and Levi’s decision to be a disciple, drawing a before and after of what each person’s life might have looked like. (Before: Peter mending nets, fishing in a boat, selling his fish. After: following Jesus, watching him teach the crowd, helping him go from town to town, telling others about how his life has been changed by Jesus.

Spend Time Learning/Researching the other Disciples

Children may want to search for the names of the other disciples and draw all twelve, labeling them with their names. (Find this in Luke 6: 12-16)  If you like, assign each child a disciple and have the children draw a face, labeling it with the name they were given. They could include their own face and name with the 12 for a great classroom decoration.

Want to help the children learn the disciples’ names? There’s a song at the website here. Could they rewrite it into a rap song? (I know they could!)

For more art response ideas to spark the children’s own thinking, see my Pinterest page, here.

Enjoy!

Love, Becky

Epiphany / Baby Jesus is Dedicated in the Temple

Welcome to the celebration of Epiphany Sunday, January 6! I hope your 2019 will soon be off to a wonderful start. This Sunday you can choose whether to present the Epiphany story or the story of the Dedication of Jesus to God. I’m including both in this blog post.



Epiphany

Since this is Epiphany Sunday, this is a great time to talk in more depth about the visit of the Magi–and to help children understand what Epiphany really celebrates. As you teach the lesson as is written in the book, I hope you’ll have time to light the frankincense and myrrh, discuss the significance and meaning of each one, and let the children compare the scents. They won’t forget this! If you have any experience with being at a worship service when incense was used, I hope you’ll share it. Also, you might like to add that we still have a star of sorts on our own journey to discover who Jesus is: the scriptures in the Bible which share the words he said and the things he did.

As you know, on Epiphany, we celebrate that Jesus was born not just for the Jewish people but for the Gentiles as well (such as the Magi.) The children may need help realizing what a big deal this is.  Epiphany also commemorates the dedication of Jesus in the temple with Simeon. (Luke 2:21-38) This is not in the Godly Play script, so the children may not know this story. What a great time to share it! Especially since most of them have been dedicated in our church or have seen a baby dedication.  You could follow the script with a retelling of this story.

Since there are so many different ways you could go in this lesson, I’m not going to give you wondering questions. If you use the Epiphany lesson, I hope you’ll come up with your own questions to get the children thinking and deepen their thought process. I’d love it if a teacher could write down any comments the children make during this wondering time that I could share with their parents. I’ll put a sheet of paper in your class folder for this.

Hints for the Create-a-gift-for-God time:

1.  Children love making stars and crowns, so this is a perfect time to do that!

2. You could also have the children recreate Jesus’s dedication in the temple, either by drawing or painting it with watercolors. A child could make a baby Jesus 3 dimensionally with clay or clothespins and other children could make the parents and the temple.

Baby Jesus Is Dedicated to God

Hopefully this story will help the children understand Jesus’ dedication in the Temple as well as explore the way they were dedicated to God at our church when they were babies. The Bible story comes from Luke 2:21-39.

If you teach Godly Play at a different church, this lesson might work for you too. You just may need to adjust the second part of the lesson to fit your church’s traditions.

The story basket contains: a swaddled Baby Jesus, a pair of doves, figures for Simeon and Anna, a rose, a New Testament, a copy of our dedication song, and the felt underlay.

Here’s the story script, with instructions to the storyteller in regular lettering, and words to say in italics:

At Christmas we celebrated the good news that God sent Baby Jesus into the world.

(Place Baby Jesus on the underlay.)

 Joseph and Mary celebrated too when Jesus was born, and forty days later it was time to celebrate again. Back in Jesus’ time, forty days after a mom and dad had their first boy baby, they took him to the big temple in Jerusalem and dedicated him to God. Jesus was Mary and Joseph’s first boy, and they wanted to dedicate him to God too. So off to the Temple they went, Mary and Joseph and little Baby Jesus.

Just like all the other families, they took with them a pair of doves or young pigeons to give to God as a gift.

(Place pair of birds on the underlay.)

They didn’t know that something special was going to happen that day, something that had never  happened with other families.

There was a good man living in Jerusalem who loved God very much. His name was Simeon, and he was sure that one day God would send someone to change everything and save the people of Israel. This man’s name was Simeon.  God had promised Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah, the special person God would send.

(Place Simeon, a figure of a person, on the underlay.)

God told Simeon to go to the temple that day. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus in, Simeon took Baby Jesus in his arms and knew that this was the Messiah, the special person God had sent to change everything. As he held Baby Jesus, he thanked God for him and prayed something like, “God you’ve done it! Now that I’ve seen him with my own eyes I can be at peace.”

Mary and Joseph were amazed at what Simeon said. They hardly knew what to think!

Then Simeon said to Mary that Jesus would save Israel. He also told her some strange, sad things. He said that many people would speak out against Jesus. He told her that what would happen in Jesus’ life would break her heart.

There was another person in the temple who noticed Jesus too. Her name was Anna, and she was a very old prophet, 84 years old.

(Place Anna, a figure of a person, on the underlay.)

  Anna loved God so much that she never left the Temple. She was so close to God and God was so close to her that she knew what was important.  She saw Simeon holding Jesus and she knew how special Jesus was. She gave thanks to God and then told everyone that Jesus was the one who would change everything.

What an amazing day at the temple!  Jesus was dedicated to God. Now he did the important work of growing into a little boy and then a young man.

Did you know that people still go to church to dedicate babies to God? Different churches do it differently.

If you are a baby at First Baptist, we do some special things to celebrate your birth.  On the Sunday after a baby is born, we put a red rose on the baptistery and tell the whole church about the baby in worship.

(Place a rose on the underlay.)

Then the whole congregation sings a song together to celebrate the baby’s birth.

(Place the song on the underlay and read it to the children. )

When the baby is old enough to come to church, we have a special time in worship to dedicate the babies to God. A family brings the baby up to Pastor Jim, and Pastor Jim introduces the family to the church and takes the baby for a walk around the sanctuary. As he holds the baby and walks, Pastor Jim tells the baby about how much God loves her, how much our church family loves her, and how we will show our love to her as we teach her about God and watch her grow. Then the baby is given a little Bible with her name on it.

(Place a Bible on the underlay.)

Then we pray together, asking God to bless the baby and her family.

Wondering Questions:

I wonder what is your favorite part of the dedication of babies at our church.

I wonder what is your favorite part of the story of Jesus’ dedication to God in the Temple.

I wonder what Mary and Joseph thought when Simeon said that their baby Jesus was the person who would save Israel. I wonder what they thought Jesus might do.

I wonder what Mary thought when Simeon told her that what happened to her son would break her heart.

I wonder what part of this story is about you.

I wonder what this story is teaching you about God and what God is like.

For teachers of older children:

For older children, you may want to include a clarification about the timing of all the events- the presentation in the Temple, then the visit of the Magi, then the escape to Egypt, then the return to Nazareth. It may make the circle time a little long, but consider adding it if you want to. It is something the kids (and adults!) get confused by, since we present the Magi in with the Christmas story.

IDEAS FOR CREATING A GIFT FOR GOD TIME (ART RESPONSE):

There are many directions the children could go in responding to this story, either focusing on Jesus’ dedication or their own. Both are important. Children love getting to choose which way they want to respond and what particularly they want to do.

Ideas to respond to the story of the dedication of Jesus:

1.  Make puppets of Simeon and Anna out of socks or paper bags or tongue depressors and paper. There are general directions for making all sorts of puppets here. You could also make ones for Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus.

2. Act out the Bible story. (Be sure to video!) I’ll have a baby doll or two on hand in the activity room for anyone to borrow.

3. Make a pair of doves, as shown in various ways here.

4. Make a collage of gifts we can give to God

5. Simeon and Anna became close to God through constant prayer. One symbol of prayer is the pretzel (which represents arms crossed in prayer, as people did long ago.) Make a pretzel necklace, as shown here. (Scroll down to p.11)

6. Make a temple out of blocks (First grade has blocks in the Rubbermaid containers near their story circle.

7. Draw the scene in the temple of Baby Jesus in Simeon’s arms, or Mary and Joseph with Anna.

Ideas to respond to the story of the dedication of babies at our church:

1. Have the children draw themselves as babies with their parents, and then draw themselves now with their families.

2. The children can make a self portrait and title it with a line from the blessing: “I am (child’s name), a child of God” or “God made me!”

3. Help the children think about how our church takes care of them. They could make a collage or drawing of the ways we do it: holding them, feeding them, reading to them in the nursery, teaching them about God and Jesus, reading Bible stories to them, teaching them songs in choir, teaching them about missions and sharing God’s love, etc.

4. What does it mean to be a partner with God, taking care of God’s creation? Children could make a collage or mural about that, cutting out pictures or drawing ways we take care of God’s creation: taking care of the earth, taking care of each other, etc.

5. Make a class collage of pictures of babies for your classroom. Have the children come up with a title having to do with dedicating our children to God. Discuss what that means.

For more ideas for art response, check out my Pinterest page, here.

Enjoy, and happy new year!

Come On Over to the Dark Side of Christmas

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but lately I live for the moment each day when I turn down my street and see my neighbor’s inflatable Santa face down in the grass, his pack crumpled as if he’s been robbed, his legs twisted as if a rogue reindeer trampled him, a squirrel running over his pants in search of a nut.

Don’t send me Prozac or carol in my face. I’m a Christmas lover, not a hater.

But maybe I identify with him, just wanting to lie down for a little. And maybe I have a secret cheer inside my head that at least for a few hours of daylight, this is the scene the world sees. Yes, Christmas is coming, and it’s beautiful and full of mystery and magic, but there’s no reason to pump yourself full of hot air (or caffeine or sugar) just to pretend! No one can be cheery all the time about Christmas, nor do they need to be. Yes, there is beauty in the perfect porcelain manger scenes and snow globes and sparkly paper and jingly songs, but there is also Christmas beauty in the darkness. It’s okay to come to the dark side. God hangs out here too.

Maybe I like it here because our Christmases are never the Pinterest version I used to hope for, back when my kids were little, and at my age I finally know it’s okay! The other day Rosie the rock chewing dog mangled a camel and ate a Christmas pillow because we can never have nice things. My kitchen is heaped with dirty dishes, even though I ran my dishwasher twice yesterday, and Sarah and Paul and Baby Josiah haven’t even gotten here yet. It’s how life is when you live with human beings. It’s okay.

I had coffee with my friend Susie this week and was delighted to find that we share a dark secret. While the rest of the world seems to revel in the lights, the jolly, fully inflated Santa, and the strangely pristine stable and Holy Family, lately we’ve both been drawn to the darkness, to tears, to grit, to dirt. It’s where we’ve found meaning and hope… and even joy. Susie told me about her newfound love of Youtube stories about people overcoming disease and tragedy and I told her about the Longest Night service I went to Wednesday night.

I went there to help serve communion to a chapel full of people mourning loss this Christmas. I hadn’t expected that they would minister to me. That praying and singing with them and remembering all the pain my friends had suffered this year would speak God’s presence to me.

At the end of the service, I was walking back to my office when I man I recognized from the service but couldn’t place approached me. He asked me about Shelton, my hilarious, amazingly talented friend who plays the organ at our church, who recently came home from the hospital after a life threatening illness. “I just want to know he’s okay,” he said. I assured him that he was, that with time and therapy he would be back to church, leading us again. The man nodded and walked away. But then he turned back to me and said, “One more thing…I want to thank you for that service,” he said. “It means so much to me. I needed it.” He went on to tell me how his wife and he had managed a lot of loss in their life together, how they leaned on each other with every trial, but now she was gone. He was suddenly alone.

On my short drive home, I wept for him. I think I also wept in thanks that the Christmas scripture we’d read that service made room for so much darkness. I read it again after I changed out of my boots and into my slippers, and cherished again the darkness in the story… The poor, pregnant girl, vulnerable to jeers, whose son would save her and break her heart. The father Joseph, who intended to divorce Mary quietly until he had a dream he couldn’t shake. The annoying trip they had to make to pay taxes to a government their people hated. That the baby was born on the floor where animals trod. That the new parents were forced to escape to Egypt, where they could be safe. The murders of little baby boys all over Bethlehem. The wailing of so many mothers. So many.

On Thursday I drove to Asheville to take care of Josiah so Sarah could work and come celebrate at our house on Saturday. Because I never learn from my own experience as a mother, I thought it would be fun to take him to Target in the pouring rain without an umbrella or a raincoat. As I strolled my almost one and a half year old grandson around the store, I decided to hand him a couple of things from the cart to keep him happy. First was the toothbrush, which went straight to his mouth. (What was I thinking?) I exchanged that for a stick of Secret deodorant, only to see him pull up his jacket and shirt and try to put it on! How about that. I thought he’d be amused by something new to hold, but he was trying to use what I gave him.

Could I do the same? Could I use what God gave me in that service?

This Christmas I will sing songs. I will eat fudge and laugh with my children and my parents. I will light candles and celebrate Christ’s holy birth, the entrance of God in flesh into our broken world. But I will also learn from the darkness of that sacred story. I will try to be like Mary, who took the hardships that life gave her and the holy gift that God gave her and became a warrior for love, proclaiming, mothering, loving until the very end. I will try to be like Joseph, who listened for God and trusted, no matter his fears. No matter the consequence. And I will try to be like the visitors, poor and rich, who came to see the mystery for themselves. I will thank God for the darkness on this solstice, and for the light that entered the world.

And I will also let myself be like the deflated Santa in my neighbor’s yard, crumpled on the cold ground in communion with all the brokenness around us, in sisterhood and brotherhood with everyone who is barely hanging on. It’s okay. God is down here with us too.

Merry Christmas, friends!

Many thanks to Randy Robertson for his fabulous flickr photo he generously shared through Creative Commons.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Welcome to the celebration of the Fourth Sunday of Advent, this Sunday, December 23, when we introduce the fourth advent card, focusing on the visit of the Magi to the Christ child.

There are several themes you may wish to explore during the time in the circle or during the create-a-gift-for-God time. These include:

1. The idea that not only did the poor, uneducated shepherds go to see the baby, but so did the Magi — men so wise that people thought they were magic.

2. The idea of God providing a wild star for the Magi to follow.

3. The significance of the three gifts for Jesus. (You may want to go ahead and share the details normally shared in the Epiphany lesson, since we’ll be focusing on Jesus’s dedication that Sunday- the gold (for a king,) frankincense (used for worship,) and myrrh (burned at funerals.) What is the significance of these three gifts in Jesus’ life?

4. The interaction between the Magi and King Herod.

Ideas to Get Children Thinking About Their Gifts to God

There are several areas of focus for their gift-to-God making:

The Wild Star

1. Make a three dimensional star, as is shown here, by hot gluing sticks together and then wrapping them with wire and beads, here or here (directions included)

 2. Make a star out of Popsicle sticks shown . The children could cover it with sparkly sequins. (There are some on our art cart.)

 The Kings

3. Make crown ornaments for the tree, as are shown here.  (Directions included.)

 4. Make present ornaments by wrapping boxes in wrapping paper, as you talk about the wise men’s gifts.

The Entire Nativity Scene

 Recreate the manger scene in its entirety as a group project. Help the children choose which figure each one can make and take a photo of them all together.

There are lots of ways you can do this…

1. With crushed candy, as with the directions .

2. With Little Debbie gingerbread men and icing and sprinkles, etc.

3. With clay–either quick dry or modelling clay.

4. With Dixie cups and big wooden beads or polystyrene balls, as is shown here.

5. Paint or use markers on butcher paper, assigning each child a figure to contribute. Or have watercolors available for children to paint their own nativity scene.

For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest page, here.

Wondering Questions:
1. I wonder what is your favorite part of the story.
2. I wonder what the wise men thought when they saw the wild star that didn’t behave as any other star they’d ever known. I wonder what questions they asked themselves about it.
3. The gifts the wise men brought were unusual for a baby. I wonder what Mary and Joseph thought about the gifts. I wonder what questions they asked themselves about the gifts.
4. I wonder what King Herod thought to himself when he heard about the baby from the Magi.
5. I wonder what message God is giving you about yourself through this story.

Merry Christmas to you all!

What Is God Like? Mary Tells Us. And So Does The Invisible Thread Christmas Story

This Children’s sermon was written for the third Sunday in Advent, December 16, 2018. The minister’s sermon was about Mary as a prophet, based on the first chapter of Luke, and this was written to accompany it.

Good morning girls and boys. Did you notice what parts of our nativity set we brought to God’s table today? It’s Mary and the angel. Today we’re getting ready for Christmas by celebrating the part of the story about Mary’s joy and the song she sings at Elizabeth’s house about how much she loves God and how happy she is about baby Jesus.

She talks about what God does and what God is like. She might be talking about what her baby will be like when he grows up.

As I was reading the powerful words that she said about God to Elizabeth, it reminded me of this book I just found that I love based on a true story that happened in New York. It’s called An Invisible Thread Christmas Story, by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski. One of the main characters is a lady who must be trying to live like God, because she does many of the things that Mary sings about God doing. I’m going to tell you again the words Mary says, and then I’m going to tell you the story of the book. Listen, and be ready to tell me how the lady, Laura, is being like God, according to Mary? Here are some of the things she says, from The Message, a different translation than what was read earlier in the service.

His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him.  He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold.

He embraced his chosen child, Israel; he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. It’s exactly what he promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

Now, I’ll share what happens in The Invisible Thread Christmas Story. (Tell the story- it’s too long to read it.)

Did you notice the way that Laura is behaving the way that Mary said God does?

Mary wasn’t just talking to Elizabeth. She was talking to us too, saying this is who God is. I think she was saying this is who Jesus is going to be- and how we can be if we follow Him.

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for giving us Mary, for telling us more about who God is. And thank you for giving us Jesus, who showed us God by living his life. We love you, God. Amen.

The Third Sunday of Advent

Welcome to the celebration of the Third Sunday of Advent, this Sunday, December 16.

This Sunday we introduce the third advent card, focusing on the angels’ visit to the shepherds and the angels’ song of Good News.

The themes you might wish to explore include:

1.The shepherds were the first people, besides Mary and Joseph and family, to be told of the Good News. What does it mean about God that they were the ones told first?

2. The angels’ message itself: Don’t be afraid. We bring tidings of great joy: Peace on earth and good will to everyone. A child is born. Go see the child who will change everything. How would he change everything?

3. The shepherds’ response to the angels’ message. They chose to do what the angels said. Don’t you wonder what they were thinking?

Make a Gift for God Ideas

1. Make a mural of a host of angels. There is butcher available, and the children could paint it as a mural if you’re feeling adventurous, (the kids [image error]would LOVE it) or use markers or watercolors. How many angels could we fit on one mural? I wonder if all the angels looked the same or if they were different.The mural could include a hillside with shepherds and sheep, or just be focused on the angels.

2. We could make ornaments of angels or lambs or shepherds.

The angels could be made from clothespins and felt or tissue paper, (see last week’s lesson.) The shepherds could be done in a similar way, with felt or tissue paper for clothes. Use sharpies to make the faces and yarn or whatever the kids want for the hair.Or, if you don’t want to use clothespins, check out these sites for more ideas (keeping in mind that the more choices you give the children in directing and making their work, the more invested and excited they’ll be about it):

3. Angel ornament ideas

4. Lamb ornament ideas

http://crafts.kaboose.com/cotton-ball-lamb.html


http://crafts.kaboose.com/pom-pom-sheep.html

5. Could you make an entire nativity scene from clothespin people? Or cut out from paper?

What about a mural of the scene? How about a (child) life size one to hang in your Sunday school room or on a bulletin board?

It’s wonderful when children come up with their own original ideas. Here a young lady thought about how we’re all on our own road to Bethlehem and decided to make her own 3D map.If you look from left to right you see an angel, some mountains, the great star and the moon, as well as an arrow in the road, pointing to a “G” which stands for God.

6. You could also focus on the song the angels sang and make some music of your own. Make musical instruments and sing Christmas carols and play the instruments. Make sure somebody videotapes this! [image error]

A Christmas Letter from Bethlehem

Written your Christmas letter yet?

I’ve written one this year- the first in at least 20 years or so, but it’s not really from me this time around. A month or so ago, my minister friend and colleague Matt asked a few of us to write holiday letters as if we were one of the characters from the Christmas story. He wanted us to share it in the combined adult Sunday school class during Advent. He suggested Elizabeth for me. You know Elizabeth, don’t you? She’s the over the hill distant cousin of Mary who finds herself pregnant with Baby John (the Baptist) which is crazy since SHE IS SO OLD!

Thanks, Matt. Thanks a lot.

No, seriously, thank you, Matt! I had such a great time playing around with this letter!

I thought I’d share it, since we’re snowed out at church. Enjoy!

 

Holiday Greetings from Elizabeth and Zachariah!

Happy 4 BC! 

It’s Elizabeth here. I know Zachariah usually writes our New Year’s letter. But after battling a bad case of writer’s cramp for nearly a year, he swears he’s never picking up a quill again. (I’ll fill you in on that in a second.)

I hope this letter finds you reflecting on your own mysterious moments of 5BC with a nice glass of wine and somebody you love.

It’s a funny thing how twelve months can flip your life upside down. I’m happy to give you all the details of the wonderful weirdness brought to us by the year gone by, but I warn you, you’d better sit down. Roll out a rug and have a seat on the floor.

The newfound craziness of my life started on an ordinary work day for Zachariah about a year and three months ago. (Which explains the lack of a letter last winter. Sorry about that.) You know my Rye-Rye. He was busy in the temple, keeping things neat and tidy. Cleanliness is next to Godliness- that’s my husband! The locusts had been bad that season, getting everywhere, and the man cannot stand bugs, even though I always tell him that God created them too, and they’re not that bad– especially with a little salt and hyssop!

Anyway, Rye drew the short straw when it came time to send someone into the sanctuary to light the incense, so in he went. Incense duty is an honor, I get it, but I keep telling him that he needs to let somebody know about his allergies! He doesn’t want people nosing around in our genealogy, trying to figure out who committed what sin when. I love God too, so I understand. But I also love my husband. You know how dutiful he is. “What’s a little wheezing when it comes to God?” he says.

As Rye got the smoke going, everyone stood around praying outside as usual. He says that the priests always pray to experience the presence of God, for God to come close, to feel God’s breath, but no one really expects him to really show up! You won’t believe what happened! I can hardly make my fingers write these words, but I promise you it’s true. An angel appeared to him! A messenger from God! Right beside the altar! To my Zachariah!

Of course Rye was terrified, but the angel told him not to be afraid. He told him a whole list of things, the most shocking of which was the news that after all these years, I WAS GOING TO HAVE A BABY!

ME! AT MY AGE!

I know!

You may have already guessed this, given my sloppy handwriting…It’s hard to hold a baby and a quill at the same time. Or maybe given my age, you thought I had had a stroke!

But no, it’s a baby. It really happened!

Yes, you read this correctly.  And yes, I know how old I am.

I’ll get back to the story while you catch your breath.

The angel said that the baby would be a boy and that we were to name him John, and he is going to be great in the sight of the Lord. (I promise I’m not trying to write a braggy letter here- it’s just what the angel said!)

He also told him that the baby will be filled with the Holy Spirit EVEN BEFORE HE IS BORN (what would that mean for me?- I had no idea!) He said that with the spirit and power of Elijah, our baby would turn people to wisdom and prepare the way – and prepare the people for the Lord!

Really!  Again, No brag, just fact!

Now I love my husband, I really do, but answer me this. If God’s messenger came to you, and told you all those things (REMEMBER IT’S A MESSENGER FROM GOD!) what would you say?

If it were me, I have to think that I’d say something like, “Thank you, angel. Whatever you say! We’ll do our best to raise him right.” And then maybe I’d add in, “Give my best to God!”

But what does my husband say, bless his heart?

Rye said, and I quote, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.”

How will I know that this is so?  Can’t you just TRUST a messenger from God?

The angel says to him, and rightly so, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, BECAUSE YOU DID NOT BELIEVE MY WORDS, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”

So that, my friends, is why I’m writing this letter. That’s why he’s had to write out every single thought he wanted to share for over nine months! That’s why my love got writer’s cramp. That’s why he’s put the quills down for good!

And that’s why we have a baby!

It’s a mystery how it happened.

Okay, well not really a mystery- I know how this kind of thing happens, hahaha. I love the man dearly, and I have to say that after thirty some years of listening to him drone on and on- bless him- there was something new I found oddly attractive about him—the way he looked at me, now quiet, not a single SAT vocabulary word coming out of his mouth.

But I’m old! I thought all that baby growing equipment inside me had shut down. My body had never worked before. Why should it now, at my age?!

When he came home from the Temple and wrote it all out to me, well, I laughed – he kind of sat there, dumbstruck, his mouth hanging open and nothing coming out.  I laughed, but I’ll be honest, I couldn’t stop shaking. The whole idea! It was a lot to take in.

You know, I spent so many years asking why. Why no babies? Why? Zachariah and I did everything right. We kept every commandment, even the weird ones. We loved God with all our might. For years, I had to withstand all the questions, all the “helpful” advice, all the holding other people’s babies when I wanted to hold mine.

We prayed and we prayed. The truth is that it was hard not to be angry with God. I was angry. I prayed about that too. In a way, maybe I still am.

But I finally sort of dealt with it, you know? And now? God was going to give us a child NOW?

Some of you know what it’s like to be a woman at my age, with kids or no kids. We begin to fade away, not that we want to. Not that we feel ready to. Our hair has turns gray. The youthful light in our faces dims. Our bodies change. It’s a strange place to be, both here and yet not here. We’re not noticed anymore. We’re not seen.

But take a woman my age and put a baby in her womb? Let me tell you, I was seen!

People couldn’t stop seeing me. I’d walk down the street and people would lean out of their windows just to get a look. And they whispered- or they THOUGHT they were whispering. And they talked out loud. And they even talked right to me, in my face, asking all sorts of personal, intrusive questions. But the funny thing was that I didn’t care! I was happy as a clam. And I was busy, you know, thinking about the baby that WAS GOING TO CHANGE OUR WHOLE LIFE! Not to mention I had to do all the talking for our family! All the explaining! Of course Zachariah is the father! Yes, the angel silenced him. No, I’m not making that up. No, Zachariah really can’t speak. Yes, we’ve tried lemon juice and honey. Yes we’ve tried whisky. It didn’t work, though he did smile a lot. Yes, you can talk to him. No, shouting does not help. He can hear fine. He just can’t speak.

But I wasn’t the only one who was busy.

Apparently, Gabriel, the angel, the MESSENGER OF GOD whom my husband had offended into being silenced, had another person to visit!

And the incredible thing is that of all the people in the world, once again, Gabriel picked someone I knew! It was Mary, a young cousin of mine. What a small, strange world!

Now I will say that another person in my situation might have been tempted to roll her eyes as Mary went around telling everybody that she was carrying the SON OF GOD! That pretty young thing- with hair that had not grayed and eyes too new to have seen much pain and lovely doe-y skin. Another person might even watch and wait to see who the baby resembled , and if he looked like the neighbor kid down the street- the one with the shaggy hair and the crooked grin, well, she’d have her answer. Another person might pray she gets stretch marks and circles under her eyes. Another person might stew on the fact that someone like herself wanted a child so desperately and had a happy home for that baby, with the maturity to make good choices and the ability to be a wise mother. And I was tempted to think that way- the thoughts crossed my mind, I’ll admit it.

But you know, as much as my inner voice wanted to be petty, I could not be that person. Because Gabriel visited Zechariah too. Because God gave us this baby. Because God gave us this baby, I can only believe in God’s power! I can only be thankful! I can only be floored and bewildered that God would choose us to be part of his plan! Because God gave us this baby, I can only rejoice with my young cousin! I remember when she was born- all that hair and the quiet, strangely peaceful child she was, the way she twirled her hair with her little finger whenever she was deep in thought. Because I know Mary and I know her heart- I know how much she loves God-I can only be ecstatic for her! For us all!

The little thing was all atwitter when she came to visit. She needed support, she needed someone to celebrate with her, not scrutinize. She needed someone to believe her. Someone who would help her think out this wondrous bizarre craziness that was happening to her! When she rushed in my house it all became real to me. As weird as it sounds, I saw the holiness all around her, like a silken screen, glittery, vibrating! She was bathing in it, and that holiness came alive in me too. She walked through the door and BAM! John leapt inside me with such intensity that I almost fell down, he knocked me so off kilter!

I saw all of that and I felt it and I knew it was true. It was real! And she claimed it, LIKE A QUEEN, in words that I’ll never forget! How did a poor peasant girl like our Mary speak such eloquence, speak such confidence, speak like a prophet? It was only through God. Only God could do that.

Mary stayed three months with me, and I’ll always remember that time. Something precious happened between the two of us. I could encourage her through her morning sickness. (How about that? Me, the experienced mother to be!) And she could give me company. We would sit around at night with Mr. No Words and spin tales of what our boys would do together. When I worried, she settled me, and when she worried, I comforted her.  And then she was gone.

There was quiet in my house again, but not for long. When Baby John finally decided to make his way into the world, he made his presence known! Loudly! Where was the bookish little quiet man I’d expected? Where was the boy who would be just like his daddy, trying to find a place for everything and everything in its place? Nowhere, that’s where! Our John, who’s six months old now, blabbers a mile a minute. He’s raring to go!

Even at the bris we could hardly keep him still. Maybe he sensed that his Rye and I were a little on edge, not just because they were going to cut our perfect boy, (I know it’s what we do but I don’t have to like it.) We were trying to trust God that what the angel promised would come true, that Zachariah’s voice would return once our son received his chosen name. I had to push on that a little, but I didn’t mind. It’s what God wanted, and I wanted it too. How I longed to hear my husband’s voice again, calling my name. Shoot, even complaining about the locusts- anything.

The priests wanted to name him Zachariah (Awkward!) and when I said, “No! His name is John,” they went on lecturing me about how we don’t have relatives by that name! Like I didn’t know that already! And even though I WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE, they started making signs to Rye (as if he couldn’t hear!- a couple of them aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed) asking him what name he would like the boy to have. Zachariah got a pad of paper and wrote “His name is John.” At least they listened then! 

It was at that very moment that my man got his speech back! He started praising God- and so did I!  Oh, the relief!

Rye got filled with the Holy Spirit and started prophesying right there, and I soaked up every word, partly because each word came from God, but also because I had almost forgotten what his voice sounded like, this man of God, my husband.

It’s been a crazy, beautiful, strange year and I wouldn’t want to go through it with anyone else.

Our little John is the light of our life. I guess he must think all mommies have gray hair and wrinkles, but that’s okay. I just want what all mothers want. A healthy baby. A bright future. Safety in the Lord. A passion to live for.  I pray for those things for my John.

He may do big things for God one day, but for now, we’re just glad we’re blessed with a normal baby boy. A boy who loves his bath- he’s a little fish! Now that he can sit up in the tub, you should see how he splashes around, dunking the little ducky my brother carved for him. It’s never enough to wash himself- he has to get us all wet too. He likes crawling around the house and blabbering. (We call him our little preacher.) He LOVES the free honey samples they give out at the market and he thinks camels are hilarious. The only thing he doesn’t seem to care for is our walks in the desert. He’s always crying out in the wilderness, but Zachariah says that he probably just has something he’s trying to say.

Speaking of having something to say, I suppose this has gotten long so I’ll sign off. Know that we send our best wishes to you! May God, who blesses us all beyond our understanding, use every one of us! And may we bring our heavenly father sheer delight!

Happy 4BC to you and yours!

Love, Elizabeth, Zachariah, and Baby John.

 

Many thanks to Orin Zebest for this flickr photo (the writing one) through Creative commons

And many thanks to LEINWEBER of Waiting For the Word for this flickr photo (the Mary and Elizabeth one) through Creative Commons.

What the World Needs Now Is…a Porta Potty?

If you’re a Facebook friend of mine, you’ve heard all about the Porta Potty in my driveway.

We’ve been having some work done on our house, so they moved it in about a month ago. My friends gave me lots of fun suggestions about how to decorate it for the holidays, and I gave them the story of my awkward encounter with a postman, in which I rushed down the stairs to meet him, excited to receive a package that I ordered, only to find him reaching for the Porta Potty door. “Oh,” I shouted as he looked at me, “help yourself!”

Yesterday the guys finally finished their work. I now have a walkway that will not cause anyone to fall backwards and hit their head on the bricks (YAY! No more concussions!) and a back porch that does not route all rainwater to my back door. The path from my front steps down to the driveway is no longer a set of stepping stones laid out by long legged Paul Bunyan, so that you have to leap frog from one to another or just give up and put your feet in the dirt. And the back patio is no longer a mass of loose flagstone that Rosie will drag, piece by humongous piece, into my kitchen.

“Well that’s it!” said Tim yesterday morning.”I think we’re all done!!” Tim is a stone mason and a really nice guy and ALWAYS ON TIME (!) and if he weren’t married and if I had a single sister his age, I’d set them up. “We’ll get all our messes cleaned up and then we’re out of here. The porta john guy will stop by on Monday to pick it up.”

“Several folks have enjoyed using it,” I laughed.

“Oh yeah, already this morning your garbage lady made a pit stop, and there was a jogger too.”

How about that? Who knew that a Porta Potty could come in so handy!

I spent a vacation day at home, puttering around, cleaning up my own messes. As I washed dishes at the sink, I watched a guy I recognized walk slowly by my house. He was one of several workmen pulling up old scraggly bushes in front of the condos up the street, replacing them with new shrubs and flowers. He had the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up, but I could see he was eyeing me as I was eyeing him, walking slower and slower as he neared the end of my driveway.

I bet he wants to use the Porta Potty, I thought. He’s not sure if I’d mind.

I left the kitchen to give him some privacy. A couple minutes later, I sneaked back to the window to watch him exit.

Our eyes met- at least I thought they did- so I gave him a friendly wave.

He waved back!

Aww. We were Porta Potty friends!

Over the day, I made it my secret game to watch if anyone else might use our public outhouse.

Guess what. They did! I caught three more people taking advantage of the facilities. One was a lady taking a walk and the others were landscape guys. Where did they usually go to the bathroom while they were working? It’d be a pain to have to stop working and get in the car to go to a gas station. This problem had never occurred to me.

I think that’s the moment when I started feeling some ownership for the outhouse in my driveway. What was it like in there? Was it stinky? Was it clean? I went outside and checked it out.

Rosie the dog was very interested in what I was doing.

I was relieved to find that it was amazingly clean, save for the muddy footprints on the floor. I don’t know how, but there was no smell at all. I checked for toilet paper, and there was plenty. “It’s really nice inside,” I said to Todd after dinner, who looked at me as if I were crazy. Then I told him about all our visitors.  “We’ve only got it til Monday,” I said, suddenly sad about it,  “but maybe I should put some hand sanitizer out there.”

“Go for it,” he said.

You’ve got to love a man who’ll go along with your wacky schemes. He didn’t even mind when I made him find the extension cord so that we could rig it with Christmas lights.

“All Are Welcome,” he read, as I handed him the lights to put on the roof. “Nice sign.”

“Do you think it’s too much? Do you think I’m crazy? It’s just that everybody always looks sheepish about coming into our yard to use it. I want them to know that they don’t have to sneak.”

“I get it,” he said, “but…”

But what? What was Todd going to say? That I’d gone too far? That I shouldn’t invite total strangers into our yard to pee in our Porta Potty?

“It’s a Porta Potty ministry!” I said, aware that I sounded nutso. “People need it. We have it. Why not share?”

“I know, Becky,” he said. ” I was just going to say that you need a wreath. You know, to go on the door.”

He was right!

Todd even took a picture of it with his phone.

I like the blurry one best, because look! The lights look like little Christmas hearts!

Merry Christmas, neighborhood!

And Merry Christmas to you, dear reader!

You know, I think I’m going to be sad when Monday comes. But I have hope! All the windows in our house are the original ones from 1950, and we’re having them replaced next week! Surely somebody will need to go to the bathroom!

 

 

 

The Second Sunday of Advent

Welcome to the celebration of the Second Sunday of Advent, this Sunday, Dec 9.

This Sunday we move to the second card in the Advent Godly Play series, focusing on Mary and Joseph’s journey (don’t forget the donkey!) to Bethlehem.

There are several themes to explore during the time in the circle or during the create-a-gift-for-God time, if you so wish. These include:

1. Mary as the chosen mother of Jesus. Why did God choose her? What does it mean to be in favor with God?

2. Mary’s reaction to Gabriel’s news. The older children might enjoy really studying her reaction found in Luke, Chapter 1. You could even listen to The Magnificat.

3. The idea that God gives us courage and help to do what we need to do if we ask for it.

4. The idea of being part of God’s work in the world. How can each person do that? Can we look for ways to do God’s work? Be open to responding to God’s nudges?

5. Nothing is impossible for God. (What a great memory verse! Luke 1:37.)

So how do we help the children explore the story and these themes?

Here are some ideas for the Create-a-Gift-for-God-Time to add to your own.

Recreating the Story as a Gift to God                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Children would enjoy exploring the story and recreating it in some way, both the visit of Gabriel to Mary and Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem.

1. Put up several big easels and let the children paint the angel’s visit or the journey. (I bet older kids would like this too. They seldom get to paint on big easels anymore.  You could even look at some famous artwork of Mary and baby Jesus.
2. Use watercolors at the tables to paint either scene.
3. Make “life-size Gabriel-like angels!” (Who knows how big angels are!)   Use big pieces of butcher paper and have kids lie down and trace each other, sort of like making snow angels. Decorate with markers or paint or fabric. Or you could hold this idea until next week, when the angels visit the shepherds.

4. Recreate the story by acting it out. We have costumes for the younger children. Let me know ASAP if you want to use them and I can make sure they’re available. There’s a great video made by a group of children posted here. You could use that for inspiration if you like. The kids would enjoy watching it. If you decide to do this, I hope you can video it! Maybe a parent could help.

If you’re feeling really brave, have the kids take off their shoes and honor the donkey by making donkey heads from their bare feet!

 

 

 

5. Make ornaments for Gabriel, Mary, Joseph, and the Donkey!

The donkey one pictured is found here. 

There are tons of ornaments out there for angels. Here’s a pic of one that one of my kids made out of a clothespin and felt.

The children could also make them out of clay.

I bet the children could figure out how to make ornaments for the other characters out of clothespins and fabric or tissue paper.

See more ideas on my Pinterest site, here.

Here are the Wondering Questions I’ve written for this Sunday. I look forward to hearing the children’s responses!

1. I wonder what your favorite part of the story is so far.

2. I wonder how Mary felt when Gabriel appeared before her and when she heard the news.

I wonder how she felt on the journey to Bethlehem and how Joseph felt. And the donkey too!

3. I wonder what we can learn from Mary and Joseph and the decisions they made from this story. What do they teach us about God?

4. I wonder where you are in this story. What part of this story is about you or for you?