It’s a big day for you and your group—they are arriving curious about expectations and activities and you are arriving prepared to share and experience the wonder of God’s love. That’s exciting! As you prepare for your time together, be sure to read the Bible story (Step 2) out loud several times so you’ll be able to maintain eye contact with your group while telling it.

As your kids arrive, make eye contact and welcome each one with a big smile. Learn their names as soon as possible and be sure to tell them your name too.

Use one or both of the following arrival activities to welcome your children.

• Learn each other’s names and the significance behind them. Invite each child to tell the group their full name and also something they know about one of their names such as what it means or why it was chosen for them. (“My mom liked it” is a fine reason too!) You may want to bring in a baby name book (available at the public library) and look up the meanings together or, if you know the name of all your kids in advance, do an online search for the meanings and bring in the results.
• Sit in a circle and begin by having one child say his or her name and something they like to do or are interested in. For example, “My name is Kailey and I like to play basketball” or “My name is Sam and I’m interested in spiders.” The child next to that person must then repeat what the person said and then add her own name and interest. The third person says the name and interests of the two previous people and adds her own. This continues around the circle until it gets to you—you’ll have to say all the names and interests before adding your own!

Gather your kids around you and tell them how much you’ve been looking forward to getting to know them and to spending time together today—and in the future—meeting with God and learning more about God from the Bible.

Share that every six weeks all of you will be learning some verses from Scripture together. Point out that it’s a good idea to memorize verses from the Bible and ask if anyone has any ideas about why. (So we can call upon them when we need reminders of God’s promises or presence in our lives; so we can easily share Scripture with others to encourage and teach them.)

Tell your group that one of the best ways to memorize something is to sing it—and that’s exactly how you’ll be learning most of the Memory Challenge verses this year! Read kids the verses they’ll be learning—Luke 2:8-14—and cue the Scripture song for this unit, “Joy.” Before it begins, invite kids to imagine the story unfolding as they listen to the song. Listen to it together once—or twice if you have time—and try to sing along.

After singing, invite your group to join you in prayer, praising God for being greater than all things and thanking God for surprising us with good things every day—things like wonderful weather, great-tasting food, and fun friends. 

Open your Bible to Luke 1 and tell your kids that today’s part of God’s big story comes from the book of Luke. Share that the book of Luke is named after the person who wrote it. He was a doctor who lived a long time ago and loved to tell others about God.

Show kids the story symbol for today’s story. Explain that each story you’ll be learning together for the next year will have its own special symbol to help them remember the story. Wonder aloud if your group will be able to remember all the stories and put the symbols in order at the end of the year! Show the special place you’ll be posting all the symbols and hang this one up.

Explain to your kids that as you tell the story you don’t just want them to listen to what happened—you want them to imagine it happening. As they hear the words, they should try to think about what it would have looked like if they were really there. Let them know that after you tell them the story, they get to tell it back to you!

Teach kids the following call and response as a way to enter the story together:

Storyteller: And now it’s time—
Listeners: for God’s big story!

The story follows:                                                                                            

Once there was an old man named Zechariah. Zechariah and his wife, an old woman named Elizabeth, had loved and served God for all of their lives. They were happy to be part of God’s family. One thing made them very sad though—they had no children. For many years they had prayed for a child, and for many years they had waited for God to send them a baby. But that had not happened.

I wonder how Zechariah and Elizabeth felt as they waited and waited for God to answer their prayers. (Pause for responses.)

Zechariah was a priest in God’s temple. On the day today’s story begins, he was very excited and maybe a little bit nervous because he’d been chosen to be the very special helper at the temple. While everyone else waited outside, Zechariah got to go into the Most Holy Place in God’s temple and pray to God all the prayers of God’s people.

What do you think Zechariah might have prayed about that day? (Pause for responses.)

While Zechariah was praying in the quiet of the Most Holy Place, God surprised him. All of a sudden, an angel appeared right near where he was standing! Zechariah was terrified.

The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. God has heard your prayers. You and Elizabeth are going to have a baby—a baby boy. And you must name him John. He’ll bring joy to you and many other people. Your son will be great in God’s eyes, and he will help God’s people get ready for the Savior to come.”

Even though Zechariah had dared to ask God for a baby, he didn’t dare to believe God’s promise. Zechariah said to the angel, “How can that be true? Elizabeth and I are already very old.”

The angel answered. “I was sent from God to bring you this surprising news—so you should believe it! Because you don’t believe me, you won’t be able to talk until the day the baby is born. Every word I said will come true in time—God’s time!”

It was just as the angel said—when Zechariah finally came outside of the temple, he couldn’t say a word. The people who had been wondering what was taking him so long in the temple now wondered why he wasn’t speaking!

Zechariah was full of surprising news about the special baby who would be born to help God’s people get ready for the Savior. From the way he was moving his hands, the people could see that he was trying to tell them something, but they couldn’t figure out what it was.

Can you imagine how Elizabeth reacted when Zechariah came home and told her— without talking—that God was going to surprise them a baby? (Pause to give kids time to wonder about this.)

Everything happened just as God had promised. Even though they were very old, Zechariah and Elizabeth had a baby boy. Friends and relatives came from far and wide to celebrate. They all figured the baby would be called Zechariah—just like his dad. Everyone was surprised when Elizabeth told them, “No. He is to be called John.”

“John?” they said. “No one in your family is named John! What is Zechariah going to say about that?”

Zechariah heard them talking and he motioned for something to write on. They gave it to him and he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately Zechariah’s voice came back. And the first thing he did was praise God!

The baby John grew up and pleased God, just as the angel had said he would. God surprised Zechariah with the gift of John, and John got people ready for another big gift from God—the Savior, Jesus.

Guess what? God loves you and will surprise you with many good things in your life too!  

Tell kids that you’re going to tell the story again—only this time they’ll be in it! Like Zechariah, they won’t be able to speak; instead, as you say the words, they’re going to show with their bodies what happened.

Prepare by reviewing and imagining the different story scenes together. Ask your group to tell you what happened first in the story. What happened next? Then what? As kids name different story parts, encourage them to include how people might have felt or responded in each.

If desired, list their ideas on a board or sheet of newsprint. Your story scene breakdown might look something like this:

Zechariah and Elizabeth were sad because they had no children.
Zechariah was excited to be the special helper in the temple.
Zechariah prayed to God in the temple.
Suddenly an angel appeared. Zechariah was scared!
The angel told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth were going to have a baby.
Zechariah came out of the temple and tried to show the people what had happened.
Zechariah went home to Elizabeth and showed her they were going to have a baby.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were so happy to have a baby.
Zechariah wrote, “His name is John.”
Zechariah got his voice back.
Zechariah praised God.

Once you’ve discussed all the scenes, invite your kids to stand up and get ready to act. Read each story scene description, filling in extra details as necessary and pausing for everyone to silently mime what happened.

When the story ends, invite kids to give themselves a round of mimed applause (show them how to clap without actually letting hands touch) and then gather them around you on the floor. 

Reaffirm that God is so good! God surprised Zechariah and Elizabeth with the wonderful gift of a baby, and God surprised all the people in the story with the exciting news that the Savior was coming soon. God surprises all of us with good and loving gifts too!

Invite kids to think about and share some of the ways God blesses (and surprises!) them with goodness. You might want to make a list of their suggestions and watch it grow as you continue to add new ideas. Use every opportunity to reiterate the theme of today’s session: God surprises us with good things.

End this time with prayer. Make it a popcorn prayer by pausing in the middle so kids can jump in and thank God for some of the good things they’ve received or experienced. Your prayer might go something like this:

Loving God, you sure surprised Zechariah and Elizabeth with your gracious gift of a baby! We know you surprise us with good things too, and we’d like to say thank you for those. Thank you, God! (Pause for kids to add their own thanks.) We love you, Lord. Amen.

As time permits, invite kids to the craft table to illustrate their surprises from God. Distribute paper and markers or coloring pencils and ask the children to draw a picture of one of God’s good gifts to them. Encourage those who wish to do so to add a descriptive sentence to their drawings. Be sure to join the group, illustrating a good thing with which God has surprised you.

Before kids leave, pass out their Show and Share papers. Explain that they are called Show and Share papers because they are for showing someone at home and sharing today’s story!

Ask someone to point out today’s symbol on their paper. Find the Memory Challenge verse together. Finally, show kids the “On the Way Home” list on the front page. Explain that on their way home today they have a special job to do: look out the window and see how many good things from God they can find. Make sure everyone has something to write with before they go. (Hand out some old crayons or pencils they can take along if necessary.) Challenge them to tell everyone else who is traveling with them to join in and shout out all the things they see too!

If you’ve printed a Dear Family letter, be sure to give those to family members as the children leave; if you prefer to email families the information, tell them to check their inboxes this week for important information about the coming year with their child.