For “God is with us” is a message that speaks to us at every point in our journey; we all know the need to be embraced by a loving presence. In infancy, we may experience it in the comforting power of our parents’ smile or even the familiar smell of their clothes. As we grow beyond the limits of our parents’ ability to make everything alright, we may simply feel the need to know that our lives are in the hands of a loving, all-powerful being. Some of us may eventually recognize that it is the same God-with-us who animates us as a living presence for one another. If we are alert to our needs, at no point in our lives are we beyond the need to know that God is indeed with us.
There is a brief set of activities for children and youth in the Christmas Joy Offering packet, which helps different age groups explore that message, but one suggestion common to them all is that each person express in images, words, or music what “God with us” might mean to them. If these are created in the earlier weeks of Advent, they can be used in the service or services when the Christmas Joy Offering is received. For those who may not have attended church school, the service can include an opportunity for them to create such an expression during the service.
During the last church school class before the service in which their expressions will be offered, ask those who have created Emmanuel expressions to bring them to the service. As people enter, invite those who may not have attended church school to choose a small sheet of colored construction paper and a magic marker. Ask them to take a few minutes during a moment of reflection and prayer to briefly write or draw something that expresses what “God with us” might mean to them.
Here are a couple of ways to use these expressions during worship: Ask people to put them in the offering plate on the Sunday before the Christmas Joy Offering will be received. Worship leaders can weave some or all of the verbal expressions into a litany or reflection to be read either as a minute for mission or as an offertory prayer the following Sunday. The graphic expressions can be used to create a display. Another way to use the expressions is during a Christmas Eve candlelight circle, such as the one depicted on the Christmas Joy Offering poster. As each person’s candle is lit, he or she can hold up his or her graphic expression or read his or her verbal expression of what it means that God is with us. Conclude with a prayer from the worship materials that asks God to bless and deepen our responses to Emmanuel by being more deeply present with one another.
Your undesignated gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering are split evenly between two ministries through which we can be a loving presence for one another: One is the racial ethnic schools and colleges related to the PC(USA) through the National Ministries Division of the General Assembly Council; the other is the assistance programs of the Board of Pensions, which assists active and retired church workers in times of need.
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