is for Immanuel.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. -Isaiah 7:14
Activity: Hide and Seek. Kids go find a safe place to hide. After 30 seconds or so have a parent come seek you out. After everyone is found (or the seeker gives up) ask the following:
Have you ever run away or hid because you were in trouble? What brings you out of hiding?
A theme of the Bible is that God’s people find ways to push God away. Because of our sin we recognize that we are not good. We also know that God is perfect. It makes it scary to think about what a perfect God might think about us and our sin.
One example of this is found in Adam and Eve. After they disobeyed God they felt ashamed and they hid. They hid because they didn’t want God to see their sin. They hid because they knew they had let God down.
We do this too. We hide from our parents when we have done something wrong. Maybe we hide because we don’t want to get in trouble, but maybe we also hide because we feel bad that what we have done has made mom and dad feel sad.
Do you know what God did when Adam and Eve hid from Him? He went to them and He found them. It was not hard for God to find them because He knows everything. He found them and He assured them that He still loved them. God wants to be with His people. There is no sin that is so bad as to make God not want to be with His people.
Immanuel means “God is with us.” Jesus being born in a manger lets us know that God still wants to be with His people. That even though the world is sinful, even though we are sinful, God still wants to be with us. Jesus came to earth, He surrounded Himself with people, He found their sin, then He took that sin to the cross to save His people.
God knows your sin, you can’t hide it from Him. But Jesus found your sin, and got rid of it at the cross, so that we can be with God forever. Immanuel, God is with us, yesterday, today, and forever.
PRAYER: Dear God, Thank you for Jesus, and for coming to earth to be with us. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.