IMAGINE (Candle lighting)
Today, we light the candle so that we can hear of your works and see your Light. We light this candle that your hope might shine bright in our lives. So often, we get caught up in what fills our schedules that we are unaware of your presence. If only for a few moments, we long for this day to be different. We light this candle to prevent our busyness from silencing and hiding you.
(The person lighting the candle can say, Jesus is here. Everyone else, by his spirit he is here.)
STORY
*As you read, instruct everyone present to listen for a word, phrase, or idea that captures your attention. Especially look for the imagery present and how the arrival of Jesus is depicted through everyday life. After reading, take a few minutes to share.
Matthew 24:36-44 (NIV)
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
