Invited To The Stable: A 6-Day Family Advent DevotionalSample

Jesus is the most important part of the story of Christmas. In fact, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birthday. Who do you invite to your birthday parties?

The people we invite to our birthday parties shows something about us. It shows if we are compassionate and welcoming or if we just want to look cool. It shows who we want to be friends with and what is important to us. This week, we are going to look at who Jesus invited to his birthday party—and what those invitations show us about Jesus.

When we read Mary’s story, we see that God uses our obedience to bless other people, and that’s a very happy thing. Mary was a very young woman—probably only a teenager—when God asked her to be Jesus’ mom. It wasn’t going to be easy to say yes to God, but Mary believed God and said yes to his plan. And through Mary’s obedience, God blessed Mary and many, many other people around the world.

Questions:

• How do you think Mary felt at first when God asked her to be Jesus’ mom?
• What are some things that God asks you to do that are difficult or scary? 
• Why is Mary so happy in her song of praise?