Advent adventure #2
Your mission: Go on a treasure hunt in your local mall or shopping district.
Pile into the car and head to your local mall. When you arrive, challenge your kids to search store window displays to find a Nativity scene depicting Jesus’ birth. If you find one relatively quickly, see how many more you can find. If, as is more likely, you don’t "find Jesus" in a storefront window, widen your search by venturing inside the stores. Celebrate "finding Jesus" with some small treats or perhaps a drink of hot chocolate. Optional: Before you leave, make a donation to a charity, or give a gift of cash to someone who seems to need it.
When you return home: Read Luke 2:1-7 (a recap of last week’s reading.) Then read Matthew 2:1-12.
Discussion guide:
Do you like visiting the mall/town center and seeing it all decorated for Christmas?
Were there a lot of Christmas decorations, or just a few? Did you enjoy the treasure hunt?
Were you surprised at how hard it was to find a decoration showing the baby Jesus?
Do you think there was anyone else at the mall "looking for Jesus" like we were?
What were most people at the mall doing instead?
Do you think the other people would have been surprised to know that we were looking for Jesus?
Did you see anyone at the mall who was honoring Jesus in some other way?
Just now, we read in the Bible about some wise men from far away who suddenly showed up in Jerusalem looking for Jesus. They didn’t know Him by name – that His name was Jesus – but they did know that a special baby had been born, one who was the rightful king of God’s people. When the wise men started asking around, trying to find Jesus, everyone was very surprised. It seemed that no one else was looking for Jesus, or expecting Him to be born at that time. Instead, everyone was preoccupied with other things, caught up in the regular busyness of life.
Today, there are many people who love celebrating Christmas. They get busy buying gifts, hanging lights, baking treats, and decorating a Christmas tree. But they don’t know much about Jesus or believe in Him, so they don’t make Him part of their Christmas celebration.
For us as Christians, sometimes we can forget to "look for Jesus" at Christmastime too. We can spend a lot of time thinking about the gifts we want, and fill the season with so many other activities that sometimes we forget our reason for celebrating. The wise men searched hard for Jesus because they wanted to show Him respect and honor Him by giving Him gifts. Like wise men, we need to search for ways to remember Jesus and honor Him at Christmastime.
[Brainstorm some ways that you’d like to bring honor to Jesus this season as a family, or recall some things you have done already. Close with a time of prayer.]