December 10, 2014
The stage is set! We are ready!
The room is ready for the cast of Jam Kids.
Will there be room at the inn?
First, we are transformed into shepherds,
angels, and wise people!
Max, Jack, and Susan.
Elizabeth played the part of Mary.
Caroline
Victoria
Thanks, Grant! You are a Wise Person!
Victoria and Kathryn try out their candles.
For a little while, Taylee was a lamb!
The shepherds took care of their sheep.
Micah, Jayden, Darya.
Caroline and Max
While everyone dressed, we made SHEEP
- our animal of the month.
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Follow the directions!       Then . . . Our Play!    
Everything was ready.
The moment God had been waiting for was here at last!
God was coming to help his people, just as he promised in the beginning.
There was a young girl who was engaged to a man named Joseph.
( Joseph was the great-great-great-great-great grandson of King David.)
One morning, this girl was minding her own business when suddenly,
a great light appeared, right there, next to her.
It was Gabriel, an angel, a special messenger from heaven.
“Mary, you’re going to have a baby. A little boy.
You will call him Jesus. He is God’s own Son.”
Part 2 - MARY AND JOSEPH GO TO BETHLEHEM
Sure enough, it was just as the angel had said.
Several months later, Mary was almost ready to have her baby.
Now, Mary and Joseph had to take a trip to Bethlehem
so that they could obey the laws of the land. Each person had to make the trip to the town of their ancestors. But when they reached the little town, they found every room was full. Every bed was taken. They went from one place to another, searching for a room to rent for the night. 
“Go away!” the innkeepers told them.
“There isn’t any place for you.”  
“I’m sorry,” said the innkeeper.
"I have no space inside where it is warm. But my stable would be a warm place to sleep.” 
So Mary and Joseph stayed where the cows
and the donkeys and the horses stayed.
And there, in the stable, among the chickens and the donkeys,
and the sheep, in the quiet of the night,
God gave the world his wonderful gift.
The baby that would change the world was born. His baby Son.
 
Mary and Joseph wrapped him up to keep him warm.
They made a soft bed of straw
and used the animals’ feeding trough as his cradle.
And they gazed in wonder at God’s Great Gift,
wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.
Mary and Joseph named him Jesus, “Emmanuel”
- - - which means, “God has come to live with us.”
Because, of course, he had.
Part 3 - THE LIGHT OF THE WHOLE WORLD
A CAMPFIRE IS PLACED IN THE CENTER OF THE ROOM. ALSO THE SHEEP.
That same night in amongst the other stars, suddenly a bright new star appeared.
Of all the stars in the dark heavens, this one shone clearer.
It blazed in the night and made the other stars look pale beside it.
THE STAR ENTERS AND STANDS NEAR THE CAMPFIRE.
God put it there when his baby Son was born - to be like a spotlight.
Shining on him. Lighting up the darkness.
Showing people the way to him.
SHEPHERDS ENTER AND TAKE THEIR PLACE IN THE CENTER OF THE ROOM.
THEY GATHER AROUND THE CAMPFIRE.
 
God must have thought shepherds were very important indeed,
because they are the ones he chose to tell the good news to first.
That night, some shepherds were out in the open fields,
warming themselves by a campfire, when suddenly
the sheep SEEMED FRIGHTENED by something.
The olive trees rustled. What was that . . .A wing beat?
God couldn’t keep the good news to himself.
He had been waiting all these long years for this moment,
and now he wanted to tell everyone!
AN ANGEL APPROACHES THE SHEPHERDS
 
The shepherds turned around.
Standing in front of them was a huge light, blazing in the darkness.
“Don’t be afraid of me!”
the bright and shining angel said.
“I haven’t come to hurt you.
I’ve come to bring you happy news
for everyone everywhere.
Today, in David’s town, in Bethlehem,
God’s Son has been born! You can go and see him.
He is sleeping in a manger.”
God had sent an angel to tell Mary the good news. He’d put a special star in the sky to show where his boy was. And now he was going to send a big choir of angels to sing his happy song to the world: He’s here! He’s come! Go and see him. My little boy!
Behind the angel they saw a cloud of light.
It was a large group of angels,
and they were singing a beautiful song:
“Glory to God! Peace on Earth! Good Will to All.”
Then as quickly as they appeared, the angels left.
 left their sheep, hurried down the grassy hill, through the gates of Bethlehem, searching and searching, until, at last, they reached . . .a tumbledown stable.  
They caught their breath. Then, quietly they tiptoed inside.
They knelt on the dirt floor.
They had heard about this Promised Child and now he was here.
Heaven’s Son. The Maker of the Stars.
A baby sleeping in his mother’s arms.
This baby would be like that bright star shining in the sky that night.
A light to light up the whole world.
Chasing away darkness. Helping people to see.
And the darker the night got, the brighter the star would shine.
 
PART 4 - KING OF ALL KINGS
Far away, in the East, three clever men saw the very same star.
The star that God had put in the sky when Jesus was born.
They knew it was a sign. A baby king had been born.
They followed the star through the streets of Bethlehem,
until it stopped right over . . . a little house. 
They had been waiting for this star. They knew it would come.
“He’s here!” they shouted. “He’s here!”
(And I am sure if you had been there,
you would have heard them laughing and dancing and singing
until the sun came up!)
At dawn, they packed up their camels and wrapped gifts for the baby.
They brought their most precious treasures of all:
frankincense, gold, and myrrh. Special, sparkly, lovely-smelling,
gleaming things - just right for a king.
The three Wise Men (actually, if you’d met them,
you’d have thought they were kings because they were so rich
and clever and important looking) set off.
They rode their camels . . . Across endless deserts . . .
Up steep, steep mountains ..... Down into deep, deep valleys . . .
Through raging rivers . . . Over grassy plains . . .
night and day, and day and night, for hours that turned into days,
that turned into weeks, that turned into months and months,
until, at last, they reached . . . Jerusalem.
They went to see King Herod.
Surely he’d know where this baby was.
But he didn’t.
In fact, he did not like the sound of a new king.
It made him cross.
He didn’t want anyone to be king, except him.
But Herod’s advisors told the three Wise Men
what was written in their books -
what God had said about the baby king. “
Go to Bethlehem. That’s where you’ll find him.”
Suddenly, the star they had seen in the East
So the three Wise Men followed the star
out of the big city,
along the road,
into the little town of Bethlehem,
until it stopped right over a little house.
Sure enough, in that little house ---
there, sitting on his mother’s knee
--- they found him. The baby King.
  
The three men knelt before the little King.
They took off their rich royal turbans and gleaming, golden crowns.
They bowed their noble heads to the ground
and gave him their sparkling treasures.
The journey that had begun so many
centuries before had led three Wise Men here.
To a little town. To a little house.
To a little child.
To the King God had promised David
all those years before.
But this child was a new kind of king.
Though he was the Prince of Heaven,
he had become poor.
Though he was the Mighty God,
he had become a helpless baby.
This King had not come to be the boss,
He had come to be a servant.
We give thanks for the gift that was given to us that first Christmas. Jesus was born - a gift to the world. He was born to teach us how to live and how to serve others.
   
The Christmas Story
from “The Jesus Storybook Bible” by Sally Lloyd-jones
He’s Here! From Luke 1 - 2
Time for Dinner
And a Birthday Party for Jesus!
          
Parachute Fun in the Gym
       
Singing around the Christmas Tree
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