Isaiah prophecy

(Sara:) I was asked which verses of Isaiah 9 I read to the children when introducing Week 1 of our Advent voyage. I read several of the verses of the whole chapter, as it's one of my favorite prophecies in the entire OT! I think it's a careful balance to not give the children too many words, but enough to get a "flavor" for the particular Scripture passage. I read maybe 8 verses total - the ones I thought were most understandable.

In "real" atrium presentations I have seen, the children were read surprisingly lengthy passages of Scripture; however, they are first introduced in a general way, so the children know what basic message to listen for, and then summarized again afterwards. I picked the "main passage" of Isaiah 9 to print on cardstock, along with a visual picture. (I'm going to use Anne's clip art instead of Moira's!) C. wants to use tracing paper to trace the calligraphy. Also, we have been reciting this verse together every night after we say our usual meal prayer. C. loves doing things like that! (If he couldn't read, maybe I wouldn't do it.)

Finally, as a way to prepare C. for this particular passage, we spent about 10 minutes in complete darkness before beginning the presentation!! We called it "experiencing living in darkness." We were waiting for daddy to come home from work, and the boys thought it was pretty neat. It's hard to see where you're going! You might bump into something and get hurt! It's lonely! What a perfectly sad symbol for the life that so many people are living today!