Having thought about what Christ is like as our king, the third family group session focused on showing Christ’s love the world in our actions and the way we are with others. Recapping from last week we sang another copying game, this time called “Super crab” In this game all do the actions of one person, the leader.

We heard and thought about a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13. Here is an extract:

If I talk a lot about God and the Bible and the Church, but I fail to ask how you are and then help you, I’m simply making a lot of empty religious noise.

If I graduate from theological college and know all the answers to questions you’ll never even think of asking, and if I have passed all the exams? to prove it and if I say I believe in God with all my heart, and soul and strength, and claim to have incredible answers to my prayers to show it, but I fail to take the time to find out where you’re at and what makes you laugh and why you cry, I’m nothing….

Here is what love is like–genuine love. God’s kind of love. It’s patient. ?It can wait. It helps others, even if they never find out who did it. Love doesn’t look for greener pastures… Love doesn’t boast. It doesn’t try to build itself up to be something it isn’t. Love seeks to take, but it willingly gives. Love doesn’t lose its cool. It doesn’t turn on and off. Love doesn’t think about how bad the other person is, and doesn’t think of how it could get back at someone. Love is hurt deeply over the evil in this world, but it rejoices over truth.

Love comes and sits with you when you’re feeling down and finds out what is wrong. It empathizes with you and believes in you. Love knows you’ll come through just as God planned, and love sticks right beside you all the way. Love doesn’t give up, or quit, or diminish or go home. Love keeps on keeping on, even when everything goes wrong and the feelings leave and the other person doesn’t seem as special anymore. Love outlasts everything else.

We then looked at the story of two people who had done the things that God had called them too. While the teenagers were with us we looked at the story of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and how her encounter with the dying in Calcutta transformed her ministry. Having heard the story the children acted it out together, leading to some quite ‘random’ comments!

When the older children left for youth group the younger ones, heard the story of St Francis, who rejected his rich a privilege life style as the son of a cloth merchant to take on a life of poverty and ‘building up God’s church.’

We talked about how both the people in these stories met Jesus in different ways and how that changed their lives because they then followed God’s call in their life and this was seen in how they lived.

We finished with the following meditation:

In the first week we heard about what God’s kingdom is like: That which is broken will be rebuilt and be better than before. Laughter and joy will be heard in the walls of the city where there was sadness and cries before. The farmer will be safe on his land and bring in a huge harvest.

In the second week we thought about Jesus being the King of the Kingdom. We thought about what he is like and also that what we see in Jesus we need to be ourselves.

This week we have thought about if we love Jesus, our love will be shown in how we are with other people. Like the saints the deeds we do will show we love Jesus and are becoming more like him.

As we light each candle, God’s kingdom comes closer. What God promised comes into the World when Jesus is born. We are still waiting and getting ready but Christ’s arrival gets closer.