Merry Christmas Eve!! Tomorrow is the day we celebrate Jesus and we are SO EXCITED to celebrate with you at church! When you come to Grow Zone today and get your sticker, we challenge you to say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS” to whoever checks you in. If you do, they will have a special surprise for you!

We also want you to make a plan to sing happy birthday to Jesus tomorrow! You could make a cake and sing, light and candle and blow it out when you finish singing, or simply take a moment before you open presents! Decide together and get your singing voices ready!

Today is the last time we want to focus on a specific prayer. You can pray this now, or you can pray right before bed.

We hope you have enjoyed intentionally taking sometime to pray each week this last month. Remember, there isn’t a right way to do this or a perfect formula, you are simply talking to God, giving Him praise, and asking for His help!

Use the prayer below as we remember that Jesus changes everything for us just like He did for the Wise Men many years ago!

God, thank you. Thank you for my life, thank you for Jesus, thank you for your love. Help me to worship you always God because Jesus has changed everything! Amen.

Today is the last time we want to focus on a specific prayer. You can pray this now, or you can pray right before bed.

We hope you have enjoyed intentionally taking sometime to pray each week this last month. Remember, here isn’t a right way to do this or a perfect formula, you are simply talking to God, giving Him praise, and asking for His help!

Use the prayer below as we remember that Jesus changes everything for us just like He did for the Wise Men many years ago!

God, thank you. Thank you for my life, thank you for Jesus, thank you for your love. Help me to worship you always God because Jesus has changed everything! Amen.

John doesn’t mess around. He gets straight to the heart of what love actually is—and it’s not what we often think. We tend to measure love by feelings, by chemistry, by warm emotions that wash over us in meaningful moments. But John defines love differently. Love, he says, is God sending His Son into the world. Love is action. Love is sacrifice. 

READ

Let’s take a moment to read 1 John 4:9-16

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

REFLECT

John reminds us that God’s love isn’t just a concept—it’s something we can see in action. God showed His love by sending Jesus into the world so that we could truly live through Him. God becoming flesh is proof that love is more than words, it’s sacrifice and presence.

Love is God stepping into our mess to rescue us when we couldn’t save ourselves.

This is critical: we didn’t love God first. We didn’t get our act together and then earn His affection. No, God loved us while we were still lost, still broken, still wandering. His love initiated everything. It set the whole story in motion.

John says that when we love one another, God’s love is “made complete” in us. His Spirit lives in us, giving us confidence that we belong to Him. Loving others becomes the visible evidence of God’s presence in our lives, showing the world what His love looks like. Loving one another is not a suggestion or optional, it’s the direct response to receiving God’s love.

So what does this actually look like? It looks like sitting with a friend who’s upset, even if you had other plans. It looks like choosing patience with your younger sibling when they’re annoying you. It looks like respecting your parents by listening when they’re stressed or busy, even if you’d rather tune them out. It looks like using your time, energy, or your resources to help someone else instead of keeping it all for yourself.

Love lived out isn’t always dramatic. Often it’s quiet, consistent, daily faithfulness. It’s choosing to see people the way God sees them. It’s remembering that every person you encounter is someone God loves so much that He sent His Son for them.

As we draw closer to Christmas, the question isn’t whether we understand God’s love or can explain it perfectly. The question is: will we live it out? Will we be expressions of God’s love in the world around us? When we love like Jesus loved, we become living proof that God is real, that His love is alive, and that it changes everything.

• In what specific ways can you be an expression of God’s love in your relationships and school or community?

• Where might you be keeping God’s love to yourself rather than letting it flow through you to others?

PRAY

Father, thank You for showing Your love by sending Jesus into our world. Help me to remember that I love You only because You first loved me. Make me a channel of Your love, not a wall that holds it back. Give me eyes to see the specific ways I can express Your love today—in my family, my school, my community. Let Your love be made complete through me. Amen.

READ

John doesn't mess around. He gets straight to the heart of what love actually is—and it's not what we often think.We tend to measure love by feelings, by chemistry, by warm emotions that wash over us in meaningful moments. But John defines love differently. Love, he says, is God sending His Son into the world. Love is action. Love is sacrifice. 

Let’s take a moment to read 1 John 4:9-16:

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

REFLECT

Love is God stepping into our mess to rescue us when we couldn't save ourselves.

This is critical: we didn't love God first. We didn't get our act together and then earn His affection. No, God loved us while we were still lost, still broken, still wandering. His love initiated everything. It set the whole story in motion.

And now John makes the connection that should change everything about how we live: "Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." It's not a suggestion. It's not an optional add-on to the Christian life. It's the direct response to receiving God's love. We love because He first loved us.

But here's where it gets really interesting: John says that when we love one another, God lives in us and His love is "made complete." Think about that. Our love for others is how God's love is perfected, finished, brought to its full expression in the world.

No one has ever seen God—but when we love sacrificially, when we serve generously, when we forgive radically, people see Him. Our love makes the invisible God visible. We become the physical expression of God's love in our communities, our neighborhoods, our families.

This is the incarnation principle still at work today. Just as God expressed His love by becoming human in Jesus, He continues to express His love through us—His body, His hands and feet, His heart in human form.

So what does this actually look like? It looks like showing up for a friend who's struggling, even when it's inconvenient. It looks like choosing patience with your kids when you're exhausted. It looks like extending forgiveness to someone who hurt you, even when they don't deserve it. It looks like using your resources—your time, your money, your energy—to bless others rather than hoarding them for yourself.

Love lived out isn't always dramatic. Often it's quiet, consistent, daily faithfulness. It's choosing to see people the way God sees them. It's remembering that every person you encounter is someone God loves so much that He sent His Son for them.

As we draw closer to Christmas, the question isn't whether we understand God's love or can explain it theologically. The question is: will we live it out? Will we be expressions of God's love in the world around us?

Because here's the truth: people don't need another lecture about God's love. They need to experience it. They need to encounter it in flesh and blood, in the tangible ways we show up, care, serve, and sacrifice.

That's what makes the incarnation so powerful—and that's what makes our love so transformative. When we love like Jesus loved, we become living proof that God is real, that His love is alive, and that it changes everything.

RESPOND

Take a moment to process what God might be leading you to do in light of what you read.

• In what specific ways can you be an expression of God's love in your relationships and community?

• Where might you be keeping God's love to yourself rather than letting it flow through you to others?

REST

Take a moment to rest in God’s presence and consider one thing you can take away from your time reading, then close your devotional experience by praying:

Father, thank You for showing Your love by sending Jesus into our world. Help me to remember that I love You only because You first loved me. Make me a conduit of Your love, not a dam that holds it back. Give me eyes to see the specific ways I can express Your love today—in my family, my workplace, my community. Let Your love be made complete through me. Amen.