3 Ways Into Sunday’s Stories for Children: God Is Love

Fourth Sunday of Advent

God is Love is God is Love is God is Love…! Yes, love and God are one. And the phrase is the same backwards and forwards. Emmanuel means God with us and is also a name for Jesus.

We prepare for love this week. It sounds easy, right? But it depends on what we mean by love. If we exchange the word love with the word God, does that change the nature of love and God? How about when Jesus told us to love our enemies, or love the poor and the sick and the lonely? Sometimes it’s not so simple. Sometimes it takes courage and intention to open our hearts to the whole of God’s love, like when Mary and Joseph said yes to the angels.

Jesus came to us in tough circumstances, as a lovable but vulnerable baby. God’s love is with us both when it’s easy and when it’s hard to give or receive love.

Print, fold, read, and color the story booklet.

1. Sing and Dance

Sing and dance with songs that say it in the title: Jesus is Love and Nothing but Love.

2. Play and Pray

Play Sometimes. Giving your mind and body a rest is a way of playing. Take a few minutes to love God, yourself, and neighbor and join Kathy Bozzuti-Jones in this Advent meditation, made just for you!

Pray: Dear God, thank you for putting your dreams in our hearts. Help us see the gifts you give us each day and help us share those gifts with others this Christmas. Amen.

3. Create

This is the ASL sign for “I love you.” It combines the letters I, L, and Y in one hand. There’s even an emoji for it! 🤟 Print or draw the outline for the sign and fill it with drawings, cut outs, photos, and words for everything and everyone you love. You could even make copies of your creation and use them as Christmas cards.