Happy New Year, and welcome to the New Testament! Luke 1 tells about two babies nobody thought were possible. Zacharias and Elisabeth were righteous and very old, and they had prayed for a child for years. While Zacharias was burning incense in the temple, the angel Gabriel told him Elisabeth would have a son named John. Zacharias asked how he could know this, and Gabriel said he would not be able to speak until it happened. Six months later Gabriel visited Mary in Nazareth and told her she would be the mother of the Son of God. Mary visited Elisabeth, the unborn John leaped for joy, and when John was born, Zacharias wrote “His name is John” and could talk again. Matthew 1 adds Joseph’s side: an angel came to him in a dream, and he obeyed right away.
For eight-year-olds, the heart of the week is Luke 1:37: “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Kids love the idea of “impossible,” and this story gives them two impossible things that happened anyway. It also teaches patience: Elisabeth and Zacharias kept praying and keeping the commandments for years before their answer came. Children can learn that Heavenly Father always hears them and answers in His own time and way, even when the answer is “wait.”
Mary’s answer in Luke 1:38, “be it unto me according to thy word,” means “I am the Lord’s servant. I will do what He wants.” Most of your class has just been baptized, when they promised to follow Jesus Christ. Mary’s trusting “yes” is exactly what that promise looks like. Joseph shows the same thing: he woke up from his dream and did what the angel said (Matthew 1:24).
Doctrine to keep simple and true: Jesus Christ is the Son of Heavenly Father and of Mary (Luke 1:31–35). From His Father He received power over death, and from His mother He received a mortal body, so He could be our Savior and be resurrected. If kids ask how, you can say, “Heavenly Father made it happen by His power” (Luke 1:35) and leave it there. Joseph was a good, obedient man who raised Jesus. The name Jesus was chosen by God: “he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Baby John grows up to be John the Baptist, who prepares people for Jesus (Luke 1:76).