Standing in line
Children's sermon
Object:
a license plate
Merry Christmas! How many of you ever got a new car for Christmas? (wait for a show of hands) Did you get a real car or a play car? (let them answer) I didn't get a car at all. But I brought a license plate to talk about today. Now, I'll bet you're thinking that this is a pretty strange thing to talk about on Christmas! Let's talk about license plates for a few minutes and you'll see why I brought it. What are license plates for? (let them answer) They're to put on cars. The state keeps a record on their computers of who owns every single car in the state. Then they put a special number, the same one that is on this license plate, on their computer next to each car owner's name. Do you have to pay for license plates? (let them answer) Did you ever go and stand in line to get a license plate with your parents? (let them answer) Sometimes it's really crowded and you have to wait a long time. What do you think they do with all the money they collect? (let them answer) Part of it goes to pay the people who work there and most of it is supposed to go to help keep the roads fixed. What is on this license plate? (let them answer) That's right, letters and numbers. Everyone who owns a car has a totally different number. It must be hard to keep track of all those names and numbers and letters. Can you think of any other times when we use numbers or letters to keep track of people? (let them answer) We have addresses, room numbers, social security cards with more numbers on them, and driver's licenses with more numbers on them. What a lot of numbers!
Our lesson today is the Christmas story of Jesus being born and the angels and the shepherds. But the license plate part is the part we don't really pay attention to. Mary and Joseph were in a strange town because all the men had to go to the city where they were born and be registered. Being registered means that they wanted to see who owned what and how many people there were. Mary rode on a donkey. Do you think the donkey had a license? (let them answer) Jesus started out in a place getting his name in a book. But Jesus came to bring good news. The good news is that we don't need a number to be counted as God's children because we are all God's children. That's the good news of Christmas!
Our lesson today is the Christmas story of Jesus being born and the angels and the shepherds. But the license plate part is the part we don't really pay attention to. Mary and Joseph were in a strange town because all the men had to go to the city where they were born and be registered. Being registered means that they wanted to see who owned what and how many people there were. Mary rode on a donkey. Do you think the donkey had a license? (let them answer) Jesus started out in a place getting his name in a book. But Jesus came to bring good news. The good news is that we don't need a number to be counted as God's children because we are all God's children. That's the good news of Christmas!
