First Reader: This is the fourth Sunday in Advent. Do you remember why we are taking time to be together in this circle around our Advent wreath?
First Child: (Relight first candle.) On the first Sunday, we lit the first candle to remember that Advent is a time of preparation. During these days we are getting our hearts ready for the coming of the Christ Child.
Second Child: (Relight second candle.) On the second Sunday, we lit the candle of peace.
Another Child: (Relight third candle.) We lit the third candle to remind us that the angels sang the “news of great joy.”
First Reader: This Sunday we are remembering that Jesus came to earth to tell us of God’s love.
Second Reader: Our family knows that love is coming. Love is Christmas. God has become involved with us. Love asks us to be open, honest, and especially to trust.
Second Child: (Light the fourth candle.) I light this candle on the fourth Sunday in Advent to remind us that Jesus came to earth to “show and tell” us of God’s love.
First Reader: John 15:9–11 (GNT) says, “I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Second Reader: Philippians 1:9–11 (NIV) says, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.”
Talk together about love. Love has many voices, and it speaks in many places. What are some of the voices of love? (Smiling at a friend, etc.) Where might love be spoken? (Raking leaves for an elderly person, making a card for someone who is ill, etc.)
Click here to play “Noel (He is Born)”.
Pray and ask God to help us love one another. Thank Him for His gift of love, which is what Christmas is all about.
Thought for the week: “And remember, it is a message [of love] to obey, not just to listen to” (James 1:22, TLB). “And may the Lord make your love to grow and overflow to each other and to everyone else, just as our love does toward you” (1 Thessalonians 3:12, TLB).