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Object: You need pieces of clothing to dress two children. One is to be dressed in nice clothes, and the other in ‘not-so-nice’ clothes. You could either dress them like they were in Jesus’ day or as they might look today. For Jesus’ day, you might dress one child in a nice robe, with a fancy hat and staff, like a king, and the other just wrapped in something like burlap with a rope belt, like John the Baptist. For today, you might dress one child in a jacket or nice suit, and the other in old, torn jeans and a baggy, ragged shirt, or sweatshirt. Be as creative as you want to be to show the difference between a ‘successful’ or ‘powerful’ person and someone who we would assume is neither ‘successful’ nor ‘powerful’. You don’t need a complete outfit, but just enough to make the difference clear. You can either explain what you are doing as you dress them or wait until after. I usually wait and keep them guessing a bit.

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! But before I tell you the story, there is something we need to do first. (Pick your two helpers and dress them up.)

One day, God had a big problem. God had a very important message to tell everyone and needed to find someone to be the one to tell them. God wanted to tell everyone that the baby Jesus had been born to save the world, so God needed someone who could be trusted to go and tell everyone about it. God looked around to find someone to tell everyone the important message.

One of the people God thought about looked like this. (Have the nicely dressed child stand.) They had nice clothes, lived in a really nice house, and were very successful and powerful. They looked like someone who could tell people about the baby Jesus and they would listen to them.

The other person God thought about looked like this. (Have John the Baptist stand.) His name was John. He didn’t have fancy clothes and just lived out in the desert and ate things like bugs and honey. He didn’t look successful or powerful, did he? (Let them respond.) Andhe spent most of his time yelling at people about God, and baptizing them in the river, so most people called him John the Baptizer and thought he was kind of crazy.

Now, if you had to pick one of these people to tell everyone a very important message, which one do you think you would pick? (Let them respond.) Most of us would probably pick the successful-looking person, wouldn’t we? (Let them respond.)

Sometimes we do that and make decisions about people because of how they look, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we see people, and we think things about them just because they don’t wear fancy clothes, or just because they look different from how we look, don’t we? (Let them respond.) And sometimes, we see people who look a lot fancier than we look, and we feel kind of like John the Baptizer, don’t we? (Let them respond.) We think the other person is more successful or more powerful than we are, just because of how they look, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we see other people, and we think that we will never be as important or special as they are.

So, who do you think God picked to tell everyone the important message about the baby Jesus? (Let them respond.) God picked John, the baptizer. God picked John to do the most important thing in the whole world. Do you think God was crazy? (Let them respond.)

God isn’t crazy. God just looks at people differently than we sometimes do. God doesn’t look at what people wear, where they live, or what they eat. God looks at who we are inside, and not how we look on the outside right now. God looks at what is inside us and knows who we can become.

God doesn’t think about people just because of how fancy they look, or how different they look. Those things just don’t matter to God, and wants us to forget about them, too. (Have the two children take off their costumes.) Every person we see is one of God’s children, and God wants us to care for every person we see, no matter what they might look like.

And if caring for other people means that God is crazy, then I think we ought to be a little crazy, too, don’t you? (Let them respond.)

Can anyone think of ways we might show people we care about them? (Let them respond.) Maybe we can just say, “Hi!”, to them, or be nice to them, or not bully them or fight with them, or just help them when we see they need some help.

Let’s pray and ask God to remind us that Jesus loves every one of us and wants us to follow him and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.

Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.