All Saints' Day!

Celebrating All Saints' Day!

I love this day.  We celebrate with saints both living and dead the faith that we all so love.  What a wonderful scene that makes.  My husband preached on All Saints' Day this morning and he talked about a church that someone had attended where members of the congregation would call out a name and the whole assembly would respond, "Present!".  After this happened several times, the person who was a newcomer to this church realized that they were calling out the names of people who were no longer among the living, but those who have passed to the other side.

Halloween, or "All Hallow's Eve!", started as the beginning of this Christian celebration of saints both living and dead.  And, like so many things that Christians have assimilated into our traditions, the pagan tradition of Halloween which grew out of this has become a part of our children's childhood.  On Halloween, the little ghosts and goblins go out to scare away evil spirits.  All children know about Halloween, but they should also know about the Celebration of the day afterwards, All Saints' Day, when we commune with our brothers and sisters who have gone ahead of us in the faith.

So, we made our Saint Crowns...

  

 On the line beneath the picture of the children holding hands, write the name of the child who is making the crown.

You could easily draw pictures of children holding hands, but I found just the picture I wanted at this site:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=picture+of+children+holding+hands&view=detailv2&&id=A20A1002811F6CF0E732399B79D652316BC58109&selectedIndex=131&ccid=k7No7YBT&simid=608047819454877602&thid=OIP.M93b368ed80531d747a7d20ffff9574b1o0&ajaxhist=0

This is all you need for this craft.  The crown and some extra card stock to help make the crown.

 

Put Your Best Face Forward- Ephesians 5:1-2 Imitators of Christ

Put Your Best Face Forward

Be Imitators of Christ

Ephesians 5:1-2

Ephesians 5:1-2 Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Everything about that Scripture verse speaks to me.  Be like Christ... as a beloved child of God... walk in love... just as Christ loved you and gave Himself up for you...

And this wonderful sacrifice was like a fragrant aroma drifting up to the nostrils of God.

I just love it.  I saw this wonderful Halloween craft on Red Ted Art, where they made little monsters and had games to see who could huff and puff and blow into the straw and make their monster travel the farthest.  So, that gave me this idea.

  I printed off pieces of paper with one side just a blank face that the kids could fill in and on the other side, our Scripture verse, Ephesians 5:1-2.  I collected large sturdy straws.

First, I cut out slips of paper just a little bit bigger than the straw and twirled it around the straw.  Cut the paper just a little larger, loosen it so that it won't "stick" when they kids are trying to blow into the straw and then hot glue it down.

 This was a fun craft and I think the kids enjoyed the message as well.  Put Your Best Face Forward... Be imitators of Christ!

Enjoy!