A Christmas Ornament That Remembers John the Baptist and Isaiah's "Prepare the Way"

We used the following lesson plan in a class of 2nd-5th graders.

Lesson Outline

We have a beginning ritual of lighting a candle to remind us of God's presence with us, an opening prayer, and a brief review of the class "covenant" (expectations) which the kids helped create.

Then the leader reads the story of the day: in this case, Matthew 3:1-12 and/or Luke 3:7-18. Include or reference that John is quoting Isaiah 40). It could be straight from the Bible, a storybook, or paraphrase.

Then introduce the day's activity. There is much imagery in these passages about John the Baptist. We focused on the following: John wore a camel's hairy coat (sign of a prophet) and lived in the wilderness. People said he fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.'" He baptized people who made a promise to change their ways and turn to God. He told his disciples that one was coming after him whose sandals he was not worthy to untie.

For each child you need:

• A clear plastic ball ornament that splits in half so you can put things inside.
• Felt or fun fur– kids cut out a coat shape or even just a scrap to put into their ornament to represent John's prophet's coat and his life in the desert.
• Sandal – cut an oval from a brown foam sheet & glue a couple of pieces of twine or string onto it as straps. This represents what John said about Jesus.
• Cockle-type shell – to represent baptism goes into the ornament.
• A green clothespin to represent the locust (either a pod or grasshopper depending on how you translate it) and a bee to represent the wild honey (not pictured).
• John's message – On parchment-looking printer paper 3/4” wide and 5 1/2” long, kids write  "Prepare the way of the Lord," curl it around a pencil with the message facing outward, then put it in the ornament so it curls around the other items and the message is visible.
• You may wish to glue the two pieces of the ornament together so it won't accidentally come undone.

Here's the finished product.