Sacrifice means giving up something you value to help others. Sacrifice demonstrates love.

Its’ been over five months since I recorded this video on my 6-year-old phone, with a bad camera angle, and no editing skills. A lot has changed since then, but a lot hasn’t.

We’re still making sacrifices. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives. Now we add wearing face coverings to the list of sacrifices we make because we care about others.

I have decided to publish the Children’s messages I have been recording for our church’s weekly online worship service. If you want to view the worship services in their entirety and the Time for Children in context, you can find them at http://www.chumc.org.

Giving Gold for Wood

Once there was a king who ruled over his land. But there was another kingdom, too, and its leader wanted to rule the world. The king wouldn’t give up, but his kingdom was running out of money to buy supplies.

Then after careful thought, the king had an idea. He decided to ask the people of his kingdom to bring their jewelry of valuable gold, and then he would melt the bracelets and necklaces and rings and use the gold as money for their kingdom. But for every piece of jewelry the people brought, the king wanted to give a little cross made of wood as a symbol to show the people that he was thankful for their sacrifice. Each wooden cross would have a carving on the back that said, “I gave gold for wood.”

The response was amazing! Lots of people brought their gold to the king, and the people cherished their wooden tokens much more highly than they had ever cared about their jewelry. The wooden crosses were symbols of their sacrifice.

Do you know what it means to sacrifice? To sacrifice means we give up something we value for someone else.

Jesus taught that sacrifice shows real love, because love gives. Love is for others. Love is sometimes hard to do. That’s the kind of love Jesus had for us and the kind he wants us to have for others. Love that thinks about other people.

Right now a lot of people are making sacrifices for others. We are staying home from school, keeping away from friends, and canceling parties. Sacrifice is hard, and not always fun. But we are doing those things because we care about other people. We know that if we are close together, it is easier for germs to spread from one person to another. And we care about keeping other people safe, so we are willing to make those sacrifices.

Thank you for your sacrifice. I know it’s not easy, but it is important. And we will see each other again soon.

When I look at a cross, I remember Jesus’ love for us. I want to love others, too.