Bible Reading: Matthew 5:14-16; John 3:16-21
Emily licked the icing off her fingers and carefully added another snowflake sprinkle to her Christmas cookie. Christmas parties were the best! She grinned as she looked around the table at her friends. Some of them were already devouring their cookies piled with sweet decorations.
"All right, kids! While you finish decorating your cookies, I have a special story to tell you," said Emily's mom. One of the other moms started passing around oranges while Emily's mom answered a question. "No, they aren't to eat just yet. We have to do something with them first! I was looking up different Christmas traditions from other countries and found this really cool one from Germany in the 1700s."
The children now each had a candle, four toothpicks, dried fruit, and a red ribbon next to their oranges. "This is what they did," Emily's mom said, holding up an orange. "The orange stands for the world. God loved our world so much that He sent His Son to save us. Jesus died on the cross to pay the price of our sins and then rose from the dead so we could have eternal life. That's what the red ribbon stands for--the blood of Jesus. Take your ribbon and glue it around your orange."
"What are the toothpicks for?" Emily asked curiously.
"We put the four toothpicks in our orange pointing different directions for north, south, east, and west," her mom explained. "Jesus wants us to spread the good news that He saves all over the world! The dried fruit go on the ends to remind us that when Jesus is our Savior we have the fruit of the Spirit. What are they?"
Some of the kids murmured, "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
"Is the candle for 'this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine'?" Wyatt sang with his eyes sparkling.
"How did you know, Wyatt? Yes, we're all going to place our candle inside the top of our orange and the grown-ups will light them. This thing you created is called a Christingle, and it's a symbol of Christ's light in us. If you know Jesus as your Savior, you are the light of the world. Kids, let your light shine for Jesus this Christmas!"
–Savannah Coleman
How About You?