This story isn't in any of our story book Bibles, so we were reading from the New Living Translation; I'd intended to read about Anna's reaction as well, but it was clear I was losing my audience, so we stuck with Simeon.
We talked about how Simeon praised God just like the shepherds had. Then I drew their attention to the phrase from verse 32: "He is a light to reveal God to the nations . . ."
I asked the kids--what is the opposite of light? What does light help us do?
Then, as an object lesson, I took them into my bedroom--shade drawn, lights off, very dark. I told them there were two candy canes in the room, encouraging them to try to find them. They gave up quickly as they couldn't see anything.
Then I presented them with two mini-flashlights and said, "Okay, let's see if it's easier to find what you're looking for when you have some light."
After they found the candy canes we sat and talked. Jesus is a light to the whole world just like the flashlights were a light in the bedroom. Just like the flashlights, Jesus helps to see things--He helps us see what God is like; He helps us see God's love for us; He helps us see we should live; He helps us see how we can be close to God now and go to heaven to live with Him when we die.
Big Brother asked a ton of questions about how we can be close to God and I explained that we must see that we sin (do naughty things) and know that no matter how hard we try we can't fix the sin by ourselves. Instead, we have to ask Jesus to save us from our sin and forgive us. When we've done this, then God will help us to live our whole lives doing things God's way instead of our own way.
I love to see him really processing all of this information!
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