This is a lovely active prayer which helps to bring focus, peace and calm.

You will need:

• A strong cardboard cut out of a sheep (size depending on what you are using them for afterwards)
• Wool or Yarn (put a call out for leftover wool in your church family to reduce costs here.

How to Pray:

The facilitator will read out simple wondering prayers.  Invite people to sit quietly and comfortably, breathing slowly and thinking about what they are hearing.

When the facilitator says ‘Jesus, you wrap me in your love’, invite people to wrap the wool around their sheep several times.

Prayer:

Jesus, you wrap me in your love.

The Bible tells me you surround me,

You indwell me,

You go before me,

You walk beside me.

Jesus, you wrap me in your love.

I wonder what the Shepherds were thinking before the angels appeared.  Maybe they felt lonely, isolated and far away from their family and friends.  Maybe they were enjoying the quiet night and they liked tending to their work.  Maybe they were worrying about something.

The promise of Hope, the arrival of Hope, can interrupt our thoughts.  What thoughts do you have that need to be interrupted by the Hope of Jesus?

Jesus, you wrap me in your love.

Before the angels appeared, it was dark.  It would have been very dark on those hills.  The light of Christ comes to us in a whisper, a tiny flicker of a light or it comes in a ROAR, a host of angels filling the sky with light and song.  However it comes, it disrupts the darkness and brings comfort.  How can the light of Christ bring comfort to you now?

Jesus, you wrap me in your love.

At first, the message of the Good News brought fear – to Mary, to Joseph, to the Shepherds.  But then the fear was replaced by strength and joy as they were invited into God’s plan.

The Shepherds were on the margins and suddenly they were hurrying into the centre of God’s story – hurrying to meet Jesus.

Is fear ruling your decisions and actions?  How can you let go of fear and take hold of the strength and joy that comes with being guided by the Good News?

Jesus, you wrap me in your love.

I invite you now to wrap until your wool or yarn is used up.  Notice if the wrapping gets difficult and the wool slips off.  Maybe your thoughts are pulled to fixing it.  Maybe you feel frustrated to be interrupted from your flow.  That’s ok!

Invite God into the interruptions.

Invite God into the frustrations.

Invite God into the blips and bumps of your everyday.

Jesus, you wrap me in your love.

• Dove or heart templates cut out.- see below template from Sunhats and wellieboots
• Pens/colouring pencils
• Clothes pegs or string for attaching.
• A large branch or a Christmas tree.

These prayers invite people to think about difficult circumstances that feel like they may never be resolved.  Maybe people are thinking about an international crisis or a conflict in a region that has gone on for years.

Maybe they are thinking about a difficult situation in their family or a personal struggle that seems so big, it feels as if it can never be resolved.

Soon, we will celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.  He brings peace and healing in impossible situations.  And although we may not get the outcome we want, we can always put our Hope in Jesus, that he brings the calm in the chaos and the peace in the storm.

Using either a heart or a dove template, write or draw your hopes for this season and for some difficult situations on them.  Then, using the clothespeg or string, attach the template to the branch to symbolise you putting your hope in Jesus.  In a church service, a tree or large branch can be covered in people’s symbols of hope.

At home people can attach their dove or heart to a Hope branch or to their Christmas tree as a visual reminder throughout the coming days that Jesus brings peace in the midst of every and any situation, and we can put our Hope in Him.

To Begin:

Put one hand on your stomach and one on your chest – breath in and out slowly.  Breath in through your nose, pause, and then out through your mouth.  Let your stomach fill, then your ribcage and your lungs.  Feel your hands rise and fall.  When you feel still say ‘God is closer to me than my very breath.’

Main Activity:

Clench your fist, then open out your hand stretching the fingers wide for the star hand breathing technique.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh79w9pn9Cg

As you breathe in and trace your finger up, think ‘You are with me on the mountaintop.

As you breathe out and trace your finger back down think, ‘You are with me in the valley.’

Do the exercise one more time, this time first visualising things that represent a mountaintop and a valley in your life right now.  Then simply say, ‘You are with me’ as you breathe in and think of the good places where God is present in your life and then ‘You are with me’ as you breathe out and think of the difficult places where God is present in your life.

The Psychology of the activity:  Note that this is written by a practitioner NOT a professional:

Breath: Slowing and noticing breathing slows heart-rate and cuts off the release of adrenalin and other stress hormones into the body

Touch: Distracts the anxious mind from its racing thoughts or worst case scenario thinking back into the moment.  It also reconnects you to your body and your nerves respond to the gentle touch of your fingertip on your hand outline.

Action/slow movement: involves concentration. Helps your mind move from survival mode (fight-flight-freeze- flop) and brings the rational part of the brain back online.

Refocus: You are now back in the moment, back in your body, noticing how you feel and calming yourself down.  Actively focusing your mind on God, his Presence and his Peace provide the foundation for your thoughts as you go about the rest of your day.