Symbols of Christmas

A Christian Science Sunday School in Yorba Linda, California, decided to cherish the spiritual meaning of Christmas throughout the year. Each month, the kids focused on one symbol of Christmas and what it meant to them. Then they looked for ways to apply these ideas to their daily lives. Here are some of the students’ experiences.

The star

In Sunday School, we discussed the star and how it could represent competition or “being a star.” We realized that we could all be stars because God is leading us to excel and compete

successfully. This raised the question, “Is there anything too hard for God?” The answer is no. There is nothing God can’t do.

Last year in math, I was struggling to get a good grade. Then I began to pray with the idea that nothing was too hard for God, so as God’s reflection, it couldn’t be too hard for me, either. In the end, I raised my grade to a strong A. –Landon, 14

The wreath

Our class talked about the wreath as being intact, having no beginning and no end. We looked up the definition of intact in a dictionary, and it meant, “not altered, broken, or

impaired; remaining uninjured; sound, or whole; untouched; unblemished.”

One day on the playground at school, this helped me to see myself as God’s image, whole and intact. My friend and I were playing handball, and I tripped and fell. When I stood up, I saw that I had cut my elbow. Immediately, I turned to God. Everyone asked me if I wanted to go to the school nurse. I said, “No, I’m fine,” and I was. We kept playing as if nothing had happened. I knew I was intact with God the whole time. And the cut was healed the next day. –Austin, 11

Angels

Angels are God’s messages or thoughts that guide you. One day I was shopping with my mom and she went to look at something, but I didn’t follow her because I thought she was still

there. When I realized she was gone, I looked all around the area, but I didn’t see her. I was scared. But then I remembered that God was with me and God was taking care of me. Once those angel messages filled my thought, I knew that “my” fearful thought was just error. God’s angels told me to look over by the glass vases. I did, and there was my mom, looking at the vases as if I’d been there with her the whole time. –Kimberly, 11

The toy soldier

The toy soldier to me represents the idea of protection, like protecting your thought from error. In Sunday School, we talked about putting on our spiritual armor each day or, like in Star Wars, putting up a force field of good around us. You can do that by listening to good thoughts that come from God.

These ideas helped me when I went to get braces on my teeth. I was terrified. Then I remembered I had a “force field” of good around me all the time because God is everywhere. And God would never let anything hurt me. The braces didn’t hurt at all. My spiritual armor of God had worked! –Emily, 10

The tree

A Christmas tree to me represents Life that is everlasting and forever new. This past summer, at a camp for Christian Scientists, I was going down the Arkansas

River in a small, two-person raft called a “ducky.” All of a sudden, the raft hit a rock and flipped over. My partner was sent floating down the river, but was able to get out safely. Meanwhile, I had flipped the ducky back over and begun to paddle. At first, it was hard for me. But then I remembered a similar time when I’d felt the strength of Life, God, to get out of a difficult situation. Trusting that God was giving me strength and that I expressed God’s qualities of life, I was able to control the ducky. From there I paddled down to my partner, and we continued down the river safely. –Jeff, 16