MARY'S SONG Scripture Lesson: Luke 1: 39-55 Object: A straight stick. Boys and Girls, Last week we said we were going to be talking about pride during the Christmas season because Christmas season is a time of honoring the humble things in this world. Today our Scripture lesson is about when the angel told the Virgin Mary that she would bear a child and His name would be Jesus. Mary was overjoyed and she prayed a prayer in which she gave thanks that God would honor her in this way. She was such a humble person and yet God had chosen her. Last week we said that pride puffs us up and makes us thing that we're more important than other people. Puffing up with pride made me think of a frog story. Once upon a time there were two ducks and a frog who became friends. They had taken up mutual residence in a farmer's pond. It was a hot, dry summer, however, and the pond began to dry up. The ducks could easily fly to another location, but not the poor frog. He had an idea. The ducks could pick up a stick in their bills, like this one, with each holding onto one end. The frog, then, could clamp his jaws around the middle of the stick and as the ducks flew to a new location, he could ride along. It worked beautifully. They hopped from one pond to another. One day as they were flying two farmers caught sight of them. One said to the other, "What an ingenious idea! I wonder who thought it up." The frog said, "I diiiiiiiiiiiiiiid!" Plop! What happened? When he took credit for the ingenious idea, he let go of the stick, didn't he? He fell because he was proud. Christmas is a time when we honor the humble, the insignificant, the small. It is not a time of puffing ourselves up like the old frog. It is a time of bowing before the little babe of Bethlehem and offering him our hearts. Christmas Day SYMBOLS OF LOVE Scripture Lesson: Luke 2: 1-20 Object: A heart, a Hershey Kiss (Have one for each of the children), and a star Boys and girls, I want to give each of you a very small Christmas present this morning. (Hand out the Kisses). I want to give you this to express my love for you. If this were Valentine's Day, I could possibly give you a heart like this one. Or perhaps I could take Merlin Olsen's advice and give you a flower. We all love to get presents and I'll bet you got lots of presents this Christmas. The best thing about presents is that they mean somebody loves us. I have another symbol of love with me. It is a Christmas star. It symbolizes the star that hovered above the stable in which Jesus was born--the star the wise men followed to find the new born King. Why do I say that it is a symbol of love? It symbolizes God's love, doesn't it? "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." We have been talking about pride the last three Sundays--about the danger of thinking that we are better than other people. All children are God's children. But there is another side to this. Christmas shows us how important each of us is to God. He loves us so much that He gave us the greatest Christmas gift of all. He gave us His Son. That's why we have Christmas. That is why we exchange gifts at Christmas time. They are symbols that we are loved--not only by our family, not only by our friends, but also, and most of all, by God.