Hi everyone, it's Aunt Frenita
and we're studying Lesson 11:
"A Gift For Me?"
The message is:
"God gives perfect gifts, and his best gift is Jesus."
Our memory verse this week is from James 1:17.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above
coming down from the Father."
Maria was so happy that she could not stop smiling!
She loved babies,
and her mother was coming home soon
with a new baby boy!
Last Christmas, she had received a beautiful baby doll for a gift!
Now she would have a real baby to love and play with!
What a perfect gift!
Much better than a baby doll gift.
Many years ago, another family rejoiced
because of a special gift baby.
Who do you think it was?
Mary smiled to herself.
She just couldn't help it!
She would soon have a very special baby -
Christ the Lord!
Since the angel had told her about that,
she had wondered.
First, she wondered why God had chosen her.
True, she and Joseph came from the family of David.
God's Word had said that the Messiah
would come from that family.
However, they lived in the wrong town.
The prophet Micah had foretold
that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem,
the city of David.
However, Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth.
Then, important news had reached the village.
Emporer Augustus had decided to take a census.
He wanted to know how many people
lived in his kingdom.
This meant that every family would be counted.
And they had to be counted
in the town of the father's ancestors.
That meant Joseph would have to go to Bethlehem.
It was almost time for her baby to be born.
And God had arranged everything.
Her baby would be born in Bethlehem
just as the prophet Micah had foretold.
At just the right time,
the government was requiring them to go to Bethlehem.
The trip was slow and tiresome.
The roads were crowded with travellers.
Mary may have been uncomfortable
riding on the donkey for so long!
Tired and weary,
they finally reached Bethlehem.
But Joseph couldn't find any place for them to stay.
No one had an empty room!
Even the covered porches of the inns
were packed with tired travellers.
Joseph was discouraged.
Mary was worn out.
Finally, an innkeeper took pity on them.
He saw Mary,
and knew she would soon have her baby.
"Im sorry, every room is taken,
but there's a stable out back, if you -"
"We'll take it!" Joseph replied.
"We're glad to have a place!"
Animals shuffled restlessly in the stalls.
They crunched and munched their food
and snorted and snuffled.
But there was plenty of straw,
and it was clean and dry.
That night, baby Jesus was born.
Mary wrapped him carefully
in the soft cloths she had brought from home.
She cuddled him,
filled with wonder all the while.
Finally, she placed him in the manger
that Joseph had filled with clean, sweet hay.
Mary sank down on the soft straw bed
that Joseph had prepared for her.
She had never been so tired in her whole life!
However, she was also happy and content.
God had kept His word.
He had given her the perfect gift.
Jesus is God's perfect gift to us too.
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Close captioning by Bernice Leong