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Joseph and the Angel

Joseph and the Angel is from Matthew 1:18-25. In Luke’s Gospel we hear about the Angel visiting Mary and in Matthew’s Gospel we find out how Joseph knew that the baby was from God. In this story we have the special name – Immanuel, a name that only appears a couple of times in the Bible, here in Matthew and Isaiah 7:14. Matthew is telling us that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise.

We also read that Joseph is to name the baby Jesus.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Matthew 1: 21

In Luke’s account we read that Mary has also been told to name the child Jesus.

..you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Luke 1: 31b-33

To tell the story – if you are tellling a series of Christmas stories you will probably want to focus on the message the angel gave to Joseph.

In the story bag – Joseph doll or puppet, some carpenters tools, Mary puppet, an angel,

Actions to include – sleeping!

Joseph and the Angel story

Mary (take her from the story bag) knew that she was going to have a very special baby. An angel had been sent from God to tell her!

But someone was very sad that she was having a baby. He didn’t really understand. He didn’t really know what to do. His name is Joseph. Are you ready to say hello to Joseph – ‘Hello Joseph’ (take him out of the story bag)

Joseph was all ready to marry Mary but then he found out she was having a baby. He wasn’t the father. He didn’t know what had happened but he decided that he couldn’t marry Mary. He was sad. Oh dear!

Joseph was a carpenter – he spent the day making things with wood, hammering, sawing.. and then he went home and went to bed. Soon he was fast asleep. (Pretend to be sleeping)

Now that was when something extraordinary happened. An angel appeared in his dream (this isn’t something that happens when you or I go to sleep). But it happened to Joseph. The angel had a really important message from God.

‘Joseph, you can marry Mary. Her baby is sent from God. He will be Immanuel, which means God with us. He is the one that God promised to send. When he is born you must name him Jesus because he is the Saviour’.

The next morning Joseph woke up. He got up. What was he going to do? He did what God had told him to do. He believed that this baby was God with us, the one who is the only Saviour. He married Mary and he cared for her.

You could finish with a question for the adults – ‘who do you believe Jesus is?’

angel craft

Make a rocking angel.

All you need

Paper plate folded in half
Circles for faces
Wool for hair
Shiny paper to decorate
Paper doilies cut into 1/8’s (depending on size). They just need to be a right fit for wings.
Glue
Crayons to decorate faces of angels

Here’s a link to the Bible story – The Angel visits Mary

Angel to make

To make this angel all you need is – paper plate (cut out a triangle for the angel’s body), circle for the angel’s face, shredded tissue paper for the hair, black felt tip to draw a face, ribbon to make a hook so the angel can be used as a decoration and yellow tissue paper, shiny paper and glitter to decorate the angel’s wings and body. And glue!

We aren’t using glitter at our toddler group because we made so much mess last year! The shiny paper was a good substitute. Sequins would be fun too.

Here’s some that the children made last week

Mary and the angel Gabriel

The visit of the angel Gabriel to mary is recorded in Luke 1:26 -36.

This is an important part of the christmas story but can be difficult to tell to young children. I opt for sticking to the main points of the story. There is a craft at the end opf this post.

To tell the story

A story bag with Mary and the angel inside. Or you could have them in a box wrapped like a present.

A long time ago there was a woman called Mary (Take mary from the bag/present). She was looking forward to getting married. One day she was busy at home when someone came to see her.

Was it her mum? No

Was it Joseph who she was going to marry? No

lets find out – (take the angel from the bag/present). An angel had been sent from God to tell mary some news. The angels name was Gabriel. He was a big, strong messenger from God.

‘God is pleased with you.’ The angel said. ‘Don’t be afraid. God has chosen you to have a special baby. He will be God’s son. He will rule over a Kingdom’

How is this possible? Mary asked

God will make this happen. God can do anyhing he wants’. The angel said.

What an amazing message! Mary agreed to be the mum of this special baby.

Angel craft – you need – white paper for the body, circle head and pens to draw on features, sparkly pip cleaner, wool, silver heart shapes (at least two per angel but you can use more to make the wigs larger), glue, A4 paper or card.

J is for Jesus

J is for Jesus is part of the Bible Alphabet series. I decided on the annunciation story for the letter J because we were so close to Christmas. It followed on from ‘I is for Immanuel’ really well.

The story is found in Lukes Gospel 1:26-33.

To tell the story : Before you begin tell the children that there is something for them to say part way through the story. Get them to repeat ‘don’t be afraid’ a couple of times.

Long, long ago in a town that looked like this…

In a house that looked like this…

there lived a lady who was having a busy day. She was cleaning, she was dusting ..(do the actions for these tasks and ask the children to join in) when she had a big surprise (look surprised) . A big, strong messenger from God had been sent to speak to her. We call God’s big, strong messengers angels. The lady was frightened. She had never seen an angel before.

What did he say? (Are you ready? remember the words we practiced at the beginning) He said, ‘Don’t be afraid’. ‘You have been chosen by God to have a very special baby. He will be a king forever and you will give him the name Jesus.’

The lady’s name was Mary. She was going to have a special baby and call him Jesus.

J is for Jesus, the special King sent by God.

For the figures of Mary and the angel I used items from an old Early Learning Nativity. (This is similar from Happy Land ) and introduced them from a story bag at the appropriate time in the story. The pictures of Nazareth and the house are flannelgraph backgrounds. These were on a board one over the other. After using the first, flip over to the second.