Love is the foundation of children’s faith formation. Love is one of the first ways that children experience God. From an early age, we emphasize Christ’s love for all creation and we demonstrate this love in our relationships with children. On this fourth Sunday of Advent, children will explore the ways human friendship and collaboration echo God’s love for the world.
Starting off
Begin your time with the children by talking about what love means to them. Ask them what love looks like. How do they know that they love someone or someone loves them? If they begin to veer towards a discussion of romantic love, draw them back to the love that people feel towards their friends, family members, etc. Encourage them to think beyond the typical expressions of love like hugs. As you wrap up this discussion, ask the children to hold these ideas in mind as you read aloud the Scripture passage.
Prepare to read aloud Luke 1:39-55. Provide context for the reading. Explain that the story takes place during Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus. She goes to visit one of her relatives, Elizabeth who is also pregnant. Both women were not expecting to have children at this point in their lives. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah had wanted a child for many years but believed they were too old for Elizabeth to be pregnant. God spoke to Zechariah assuring him that they would have a child. The baby that Elizabeth would give birth to would become John the Baptist, a person who would have an important relationship with Jesus. John would help prepare people for Jesus’ ministry on earth by encouraging them to share their missteps with God and asking for God’s forgiveness. He would baptize them and tell them he was preparing the way for one who is greater than him.
Exploring the passage
Read aloud Luke 1:39-55. After reading, focus on verses 46-55. Ask the children what Mary says about God’s love in this song. How does God show God’s love for God’s people? Because the passage does not explicitly use the word love, you may need to explain to younger children that all of what God’s actions Mary lists are acts of love. Next look at verses 39-45. Note that each of the babies (Jesus and John the Baptist) “leaped in [his mother’s] womb” when Mary and Elizabeth were together. Have the children wonder about why they might have done this. What love might be shared between them even though the babies haven’t yet been born? Finally, ask the children to wonder about the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth. Note that God’s love is present in this visit. We see it in the interactions of the two women and the two babies and in Mary’s description of God’s past works.
Relating the passage to our lives
Provide the children the opportunity to see relationships in their own lives as reflections of God’s love through an art activity. Gather the materials you’ll need: construction paper, scissors, crayons or markers, a hole punch, and string. Give each child a piece of construction paper and scissors. Ask them to cut a large heart out of the paper. Then, have them write or draw ways God shows love for creation on this heart.
Next, ask each child to cut several smaller hearts out of the remaining pieces of construction paper. The hearts should be about 4” wide. On each of these hearts, have the children write or draw pictures of the relationships in their lives that reflect God’s love. Then, use the hole punch to place a hole at the top of each of these small hearts. Make a corresponding number of holes at the bottom of the large heart. Connect the smaller hearts to the large heart using the yarn. Encourage the children to hang their art up at home as a reminder of the ways we reflect God’s love as we love one another.
