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Resources - Children's Pages
December 2000
Kids’ Page
The Light of the World
by Mrs. Anne Groenenboom
When Dad asked Mum why she was looking frazzled, Mum sighed, then told
them all what was wrong.
“I’m really worried about going shopping with all the shops so crowded.
Today Carla was bumped by so many people, because she’s only little and
grown-ups don’t see her... and Joel makes a fuss every time his stroller
stops moving, so it’s awful waiting in queues to be served. I had to
come home without finishing my shopping because both the kids were
grumpy and I had a headache. It took ages to get out of the car park
because so many cars were trying to find a parking spot and Joel howled
all the way home.”
Dad nodded sympathetically. “Now I guess you’re wondering when to go
back to finish it.”
“I was thinking of going tomorrow while Carla is at Kinder, but I’ll still have to take Joel. We need to buy food because Uncle Bill and the boys are coming and they all have big appetites... and we still need to buy a few presents. It’s Joel’s birthday next week and we’ll need special food for that too. There’s no way I can get out of shopping and I’m dreading it!”
“I guess we could go late-night shopping, but that would be too late for Carla and Joel,” Dad commented.
“Why don’t we take it in turns,” suggested Chris. “Amy could go with Mum and I could go with you, Dad. Then Carla and Joel could stay home.”
“That sounds like a good idea, Chris,” Dad replied. “Mum can make us a
list of things to get. Maybe we can go tonight and finish the grocery
shopping. If we go about nine o’clock, it shouldn’t be too busy then.”
That evening, Dad and Chris took Mum’s list to the supermarket, while
Mum wrapped some presents. When they arrived home with the groceries,
Chris had some news as they unpacked the shopping bags.
“We had to detour because of an accident near the shopping centre and we came back along Fisher Street. A lot of the houses down there are decorated for Christmas. Maybe we could take Carla to see them.”
“It’s certainly well worth seeing! Friday night might be a good night to
go, because there’s no school the next day,” Dad suggested.
Mum and Amy went shopping for the presents late next afternoon and on
Friday night the whole family drove down to Fisher Street to see the
houses with their colourful decorations. There were several Santa Claus
figures and sleighs with reindeers. There were strings of tiny lights in
the shape of bells, candles, stars and Christmas trees. Amy and Carla
giggled when they saw Santa’s legs and boots sticking out from a chimney
on an old house.
“I’d like to decorate the front of our house for Christmas,” Amy remarked, “but I’d rather remind people about Jesus than do things like this.”
“That’s a great idea, Amy, but I’m not sure that we can afford the
lights to do it. They’re quite expensive.” Mum replied.
“I’m sure I saw boxes of those lights on special at the supermarket last
night,” Dad remarked. “We can work out what to do and see how much it
would cost us. We can’t afford to decorate the house, but perhaps we can
decorate the windows along the front.”
As soon as they arrived home, Chris and Amy started working out plans
for decorating the windows and they decided to paint some colourful
posters to use on the windows as well, so that people who passed by
during the day would see their message too.
Early in the morning, Dad and Chris headed for the supermarket and came
home with a box of lights. Mum and Amy looked doubtfully at the box.
“Will that be enough?” Mum asked, but Dad said it was all that was left.
“We have enough to go around the big windows at the front and across the
middle and we can use posters for the message,” Dad replied. “If we make
the words big and clear, we’ll be able to get a good message across to
the people who go by.”
“Posters are hard to hang up on windows because the sticky tape won’t
hold in the heat and the paper curls up,” Mum commented. “What we can do
is paint the message on the windows, with some bright paints. Everyone
can help, even Carla. I’ll show you all what to do.”
Mum had been a teacher before the children were born, so she knew
exactly what to do. The children had planned to make a big sign that
said “JESUS” to go on the big front window. Dad measured the glass and
Chris and Amy helped Mum to cut five squares of stiff paper the right
size to fit in place.
“I thought we were going to paint the letters straight onto the glass,”
Amy commented, but Mum explained that they were making templates for the
letters. Next, the letters were drawn carefully, filling the whole
paper.
“If we put these up on the windows they’re going to be back-to-front and people won’t be able to read them from the street,” Chris said thoughtfully.
“That’s right, Chris. When we paint the letters on the inside of the
glass, we have to paint them back-to-front and we have to start at the
opposite side.”
Mum stuck the templates into place and sent Chris outside to check that
they were the right way, just to be sure. Then she outlined them with a
thick, black felt pen and set Chris and Amy to filling the outlines with
orange fluorescent paint, once the templates were removed.
“Be careful to use enough paint and stroke evenly, because we want them to look good from the outside,“ Mum warned the children. “Now we have to think about what else we need for our message.”
Carla was busy using Amy’s special coloured pencils to colour a nativity
scene very carefully, with Mum’s help, ready to use on the window too.
They worked hard all morning and by lunch time they had painted the
words
GOD’S SON OUR SAVIOUR
in slightly smaller letters, in green fluorescent paint, just below the middle of the window. After lunch, Mum outlined some more words across the bottom half of the window for Chris and Amy to paint too.
OUR LIGHT OUR HOPE OUR PEACE OUR JOY
Finally the printing was finished then the children watched in surprise as Mum lightly painted Carla’s picture with vegetable oil and then pressed it onto the window, where it stuck fast.
“Will it really keep on sticking to the glass?” Amy asked and Mum nodded.
“Yes,” Mum replied. “The oil makes the colours much brighter and Carla’s picture will stick there as long as we want it to. Why don’t we go out and see how it all looks?”
The children raced outside and surveyed their work.
“You’ve done a great job! The message is really eye-catching.and people
will be able to read it at night too, because the street light will
shine on it!” Mum told them. “I just need to go around the outsides of
the letters with my black pen again and it will be finished.”
Next, Dad put the string of coloured lights all around the window and a
line of lights under the name of Jesus. That evening, the children were
sitting on the front lawn, waiting impatiently until it was dark enough
to see their Christmas message. Dad talked to them about Jesus coming at
that first Christmas time to be the light for the world, long promised
by the prophets, to shine in the darkness of a sinful world and show
people the way back to God.
Lots of people came to see their special window during the week and some
asked what the message meant, so Dad told them too. Dad invited them to
come back again if they wanted to know more about Jesus and several
people came. At church on Christmas Day the family rejoiced when they
saw some of their new friends there.
SOME THINGS TO DO:
-
With your family, discuss the meaning of each of these names for Jesus:
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
GOD’S SON OUR SAVIOUR
OUR LIGHT
OUR HOPE
OUR PEACE
OUR JOY -
See if you can think of a way to decorate your house to tell people about Jesus. Make sure you get your parents’ permission before you paint the windows... and make sure you shift the curtains and furniture first!
-
Make some Christmas cards to tell your friends about Jesus. Get Mum and Dad to help you choose some Bible verses to use in your cards to tell your friends about the Light of the world. Remember to hand them out to your friends before school finishes.
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