Well, January is flying by and we are having lots of fun learning about the life of Jesus – our Savior. We’ve seen Jesus grow from a baby, born in a stable to a young boy. Last week we looked at the story of Jesus’ family traveling to Jerusalem for Passover when he was about about 12 years old. This was a special celebration every year and lots of people were there. On the return home, Jesus’ parents noticed he was not with them and became very frightened. They went back to Jerusalem and looked every where, finally finding him in the temple. What was he doing? Listening and learning from the teachers and priests. As Jesus said, “He had to be about his Father’s business.” He did obey his parents and return home with them. We talked about how it is to always best to stay with our parents when we are away from home, and reiterated how important it is to obey always. This week we watched the story of John the Baptist. Mary, Jesus’ mother and Elizabeth, John’s mother were cousins – that’s how Jesus and John the Baptist were related.
Just like the angel appeared to Mary and said “You are going to have a baby.”, the same angel appeared to Zechariah and told him that he and Elizabeth were going to have a baby. Zechariah did not believe it. He said, “we are too old.” For not believing, Zechariah became mute for several months. After the baby was born and he named him John, his speech was restored and he and Elizabeth were so happy with their new baby. We learned that John was born for a specific reason – to point others to Jesus. He told everyone that they needed to repent from their sins and believe in Jesus, baptizing those who believed and became Jesus followers. We saw where Jesus was baptized by his cousin, John. We talked about what baptism means (being fully immersed under water or sprinkled on your head with water) and that it’s a public way of showing everyone that you want to be a follower of Jesus. We decided our favorite part of the story was when God spoke from the heavens as Jesus came up out of the water. He said, “This is my son; I love him and I am well pleased with him.” We learned a new song – Give your heart to Jesus (to the tune of the Hokey Pokey). See if your child can teach it to you, as well as our bible verse – Matthew 4:19 – “Come follow me”, Jesus said, “And I will make you fishers of men.” We will continue on through the new testament throughout the rest of the year. Next week we will meet Jesus’ friends that became his disciples and then see some of his miracles as we move through the month of February.
