Detecting Christmas December 24 Devotional

Christmas Eve

Fifth Sunday of Advent

Candle Lighting

Lighting a candle each week of Advent is part of our VPC worship tradition. It marks time during this season of anticipation and helps us prepare our spirits for the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas. If you choose to participate in this tradition at home, we hope you find this guide useful.  Enjoy the readings, discussion, and prayer as a family as you prepare your hearts and homes to receive the Christ child.

Read:

Today we light the four candles HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE. As we do, we remember the hope we have in Jesus, the everlasting peace and joy he promises us, and the love that he has shown us by coming to save us. Today we also light the final candle, the center white candle in our wreath, the CHRIST candle. Christ is THE reason for the season. HE is what Advent is all about! We celebrate that Jesus, Christ our Lord, was born, that he came to show God’s love to us all, and we prepare our hearts and minds to receive Him again. WHY did God send Jesus to earth as a baby? Because he loves US. Jesus is the beginning and end of God’s big story, and we get to be part of that story!

Discuss:

How does it feel to know that God’s son, Jesus, lived on earth and truly understands us?

How do you know Jesus loves us?

How can you share His love with others?

Pray:

Heavenly father,

As we light the Christ candle, we thank you for sending us your son to save us, to show us perfect love. Help us to share that love and remember this truth during Christmas and throughout the year to come. Amen.

1 JOHN 1:1 | ¹ We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands,
concerning the word of life —

JOHN 19: 26-27 | ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ ²⁷ Then he said to the
disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Why did Christmas happen? One purpose was to create a generation of witnesses. John uses the collective “we” because he is one of a company of actual people in the early first century who knew Jesus intimately. John, in particular, was a close friend, as evidenced by his presence at the cross, and Jesus’ insistence he be adopted into the family in order to take care of his Mother Mary. Jesus’ life was no mystical dream, nor was it a projected fantasy. His friends saw, heard, and touched him — anchoring the divine visitation in time and history. We are part of the successive generations, now numbering 100, that have heard the original testimony, come to faith, and then experienced the power and presence of Jesus in our time.

Can you testify?

Gracious God,

Thank you for the first generation of eye-witnesses, for their honesty and their devotion. Help me to tell the story too, with accuracy and passion. Amen.