This lesson is just in time for Christmas, though you can teach it at any other time during the year.
Start with prayer---
Give each child a piece of paper and pencil. Ask them to write down everything they did "yesterday" from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed that night. Next it's time for the skit.
Skit---
busy, busy, busy (To illustrate this little skit, I turned a large cardboard box into "hell" by cutting the flaps off, spray painting the inside black and adding "fire" with paint. I also made a little platform, the devil and his minions with the left over cardboard flaps).
NO ROOM FOR JESUS
Today, let's revisit a little part of the story of the birth of Jesus. Now I know you might be thinking "what does the birth of Jesus have to do with the little puppet show we just saw", but sit tight and you will find out.
I want to take a close look at one scripture in particular...Luke 2:7. The last part of that verse says...
...and laid him in a manger; because there was NO ROOM for them in the inn.
You know we have seen many Christmas plays and heard many stories over the years that cause us to believe that Mary and Joseph made it to Bethlehem, looked from one inn to the next for lodging and was turned down due to no rooms available. We hear of that one poor compassionate innkeeper who finally gave mary and Joseph a place in his stable to stay the night and that's where Jesus was born. However that really is just speculation the bible does not go into great detail of why Jesus was laid in a manger other than there was no room in the inn. We don't see evidence of an innkeeper or that they traveled from one inn to the next to find a room. We can't even say for sure that this stable they came to and stayed in belonged to the innkeeper or exactly whose it was. So let's take a look at this scripture in a couple different ways.
Perhaps maybe all the exaggereated stories we have heard are true. Or we can speculate that they came to the only inn in town and there was no room for them. The innkeeper doesn't offer a stable out back for them to stay. Maybe he doesn't even have a stable. Let's speculate that when they found out there was no room at the inn so they journeyed to the rural outskirts of town and bedded down in the first shelter they came to not even knowing who it belonged to. It was just shelter.
Either way you look at it, it just comes down to there was no room for Jesus. Even if there was one compassionate innkeeper, I don't consider him very compassionate if he could only find enough room in a stable for a woman to give birth. Surely, he could have found some room or space within the inn for a woman great with child. He doesn't seem very compassionate to me sending them out to a stable with animals and such. He sounds like just another person giving as very little as he can get away with. He certainly didn't give much at all; and, if there was no compassionate innkeeper that let them stay in his stable then we can speculate that the innkeeper at the one inn in town just didn't give them a place to stay and they had to find the first shelter they came to. What it really boils down to is that even back then there was just no room in the lives of mankind for Jesus.
Let's also take a look at Luke 14:16-21...
Here we see a man who prepared a great feast for his friends and loved ones. The people that were invited to this special supper were more concerned about their own little lives than to make time to come to their friends' dinner party even though he had gone through a big deal to make it special just for them. The host was angry and had his servants go out and find anyone that would come to the dinner. To find anyone that would make time for him. Anyone that would find a place for him in their lives.
You see the little skit you saw is really very real. Whether it'sSatan who has plotted a scheme to keep us too busy to make room in our lives for Jesus or not, the truth is that over the centuries all of mankind has had difficulty making time or room for Jesus. We often put things "stuff" in a more important place than him. We let other things rule out over prayer and bible study. We even let celebrations (even celebrations like Christmas that are supposed to be Christian based) take us away from making room in our daily lives for Him. Even I have difficulty finding time with this hurried, busy life to spend as much time with him as I should, and there are some people who don't make any room in their lives for him at all.
Now let's take a look at your lists of what you did yesterday...(let each child read his list to the class).
Did you make any room in your life yesterday for Jesus? Did you spend any time with him? Did you prayer or read your bible? Did you include him in your activities?
Jesus said...(Luke 9:58)---
"the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head". Sad, Jesus himself said that there is no room for me here.
Today, we need give him a place (make some room) for him in our hearts and in our lives. Let's make room for Jesus!!
End with prayer!
No memory verse this week.
