December - "The Light of the whole world

     Blessed holiday greetings to you and your family! Because of many Christmas-related activities, there is a change in the regular monthly schedule. There will only be one online lesson rather than three for this month, Sunday School will be held on December 10, December 17 will be the Christmas program, and December 24 there will be a Candlelight Christmas service. You and your family are invited to attend any or all of these events!
     This month’s story is titled “The Light of the Whole World,” and it is about how God announced the birth of His only Son, Jesus, to the world on Christmas Day.

Children: Find a comfy spot and listen to the story being orally read to you. The story can also be found on pages 184-191 of The Jesus Storybook Bible.
     Nowadays, you would hear about Jesus’ birth, an amazing piece of news, on one of your electronic devices, and you would probably be able to watch a video of the event. However, back in the year when Jesus was born, there were no such things as computers, or the Internet, or TV, not even any cameras, phones, printed books, or delivered mail!
     But that did not bother God at all. As always, He had a plan to get out His big news. He knew He had plenty of assistants, called angels, who would gladly help to share the glad tidings! And so they did! It is almost impossible for us to imagine this glorious sight, one angel appearing followed by a massive number of other angels, singing with the greatest
​of joy!

And have you ever heard that each of us has her/his own guardian angel?
     Do you have any questions or comments about angels? Pastor Steve would love to hear from you and would love to reply to you!

Adults: The Biblical reference for our story is Luke 2.
     How many angels appeared at the birth of Jesus to the shepherds?
     The book of Luke, Chapter 2, is the only place in the entire New Testament where the details of the birth of Jesus and the angels that appeared are recorded.
     The Bible states that "a multitude of the heavenly host" (Luke 2:13) were visibly seen by shepherds shouting for joy over the birth of the Lord. How much is a "multitude?" Scripture does not say. If, however, we take Daniel 7:10 and Revelation 5:11 then at least 100 million righteous angels serve the Eternal and would be available for duty!
     How many of all the righteous angels in existence were allowed to show themselves in the sky just outside of Bethlehem? Although many of them appeared, it seems unlikely that every righteous spirit in existence could have visibly and distinctly manifested themselves in such a relatively small area.
     On a final note, Nativity scenes which portray Jesus in a manger with angels fluttering overhead promote a concept that is not Biblically correct. Angels were not where our Savior was born in Bethlehem. The Bible states that after the angels shouted for joy, they quickly went back up to heaven.
     It was only as the angels were leaving that shepherds made the journey into Bethlehem to find where Jesus was staying. There is no proof these spiritual messengers were as close to the Lord as some Nativity scenes show them.

     This Christmas, let us be reminded of the great company of angels in Heaven who rejoiced at the birth of Christ. They give us a model to follow and also reveal a side to them that we often forget: they exist in vast numbers. When you think about it, everyone has a guardian angel. That means that there must be at least 7 billion angels! And that’s only the lowest rank of angel! Just think what the whole army of angels would have been like!
     Hopefully, you will be able to attend Sunday School or any of our church’s Christmas services this month!
Merry Christmas!
Margo Greer