TRUTH: Day 21-23

Matthew 2:1-12 The Magi Visit the Messiah

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Day 21 was a star pattern that we wove with thread. Like I said before, some of the crafts were a little difficult for the kids, but I was pleasantly surprised that this one was one that that they could easily do once we cut the circle and slits from the thicker cardboard. They enjoyed making their own star patterns!

I let them choose which color embroidery thread they wanted, which I purchased from the "kids crafts" section so it was easy to work with. They unraveled their "rainbow" colors. Then they got to work after I taped the first end to the back and showed them what to do.

 I didn't help either boy with theirs because they immediately got the hang of it.

And I was surprised that Caleb's had more of a "pattern" than Joshua's - Caleb's is on the left (the more blue one) and Joshua's is on the right, with mine in the middle. Most times Joshua's relfects that he's two years older and are that much better. :) When we were done, I hot glued some ribbon to the back rather than trying to use the thread to make a loop at the top.

I asked Ryan if he wanted to hold mine in the pictures. He had no desire that day to get his picture taken.

 Here was Caleb's on the tree, near the top!

 Here were the boys posing with their ornaments before hanging them.

On Day 22, we created wise men based on the same scripture above. This one was one of the more difficult ones - maybe because I think the kids weren't feeling extremely into the craft time that day. They struggled to cut the men out with their crowns, so I ended up helping them.

Caleb did enjoy dumping on the glitter (which was quite the mess!) while Joshua used glitter glue to decorate his.

When we talked about what we had learned, Joshua said that there were three wise men. So, we read the story again and I asked how many the Bible said - the answer is that it didn't say. But, there were three gifts that they gave Jesus out of their treasures. My Bean likes the story of the wise men.

 Here were our finished wise men, drying.

 The red ones below were Caleb's hanging on the tree.

 And of course I got a picture of them holding up their craft!

On Day 23, we read the same verses from above again. Then we talked about the gifts the wise men gave Jesus out of their treasures, the gold and the gifts that smelled really nice. We talked about what gifts we could give to Jesus - things that we have already and that we could use for Him. Ryan immediately responded "PIZZA!" Caleb, Joshua & I cracked up! We talked about how the wise men bowed down and worshiped and agreed the best gifts we could give were worship and honor. We remembered Mary's song and the CD we made, and we talked about how we can sing our praise to God. We said that making good choices in honor of the Lord is another form of worship. It was a good conversation.

Then we began the craft. I mixed up the applesauce and cinnamon. I realized I didn't have quite enough applesauce, and the cinnamon was crumbly. So, I ended up adding a couple teaspoons of water to the ingredients/directions in the book (and again, I would recommend you purchase your copy at www.truthinthetinsel.com - it was great!). It worked out okay. And it made far more than I was expecting! The instructions showed star ornaments. But, I don't have any star cookie cutters. I've also seen this craft done with angels. Nope, no angel cookie cutters in our house either. I dug out the ones we had, which included a gingerbread man and dinosaurs. But, I didn't want to get bogged down by not having one part. I decided to go with what we had, realizing that the idea was them to learn the Scriptures, not to make perfect crafts.

The gingerbread men worked out in talking about the wise men. How I hope these three little boys will seek after God with all their hearts like the wise men and offer them their gifts and treasures for His glory! And, truly, the dinosaurs worked out in talking about gifts. Because my boys LOVE their dinosaurs.

After we had gotten all our patterns cut and the holes created for the ribbon, I baked them and let them cool. The whole house smelled lovely, reminding us of the wonderful smelling treasures the wise men gave baby Jesus, noting that He was the King of the Jews (God's chosen people) and the promised Christ.

When they were done, I added ribbon (running out and using string for the rest).

I let the boys pick out which ones they wanted to put on the tree, and I gave one to Ryan, who promptly threw it on the kitchen floor, smashing it into little pieces. No more for him!

Our tree is full of ornaments. I'm not sure there is a single empty bough to put anything. Thanks again to Cousin Jess for telling us about this book! We enjoyed doing them very much.

Haven't ever heard of gingerbread dinosaurs? Then maybe you don't have boys...