Who can it be?

Author: Bible Society, 11 October 2024

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Your new pre-school Nativity booklet for 2024, Who Can It Be? A Christmas Wait and See, was written by Steph Openshaw, a children’s worker in the North of England. Steph shares her passion for creatively exploring Scripture as she explains where the story came from and how she hopes you’ll engage with it:

‘The idea came from this verse in the Bible: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3.20, NIV).

‘I just love the invitational nature of this verse. Christmas is such a brilliant time of year to invite everyone – family, friends, community and, of course, our precious little ones – to discover that we are part of God’s big story. King Jesus himself is just waiting to be invited into our own hearts and lives.

‘I wanted to take little ones and their grown-ups on their own journey along with all the main characters of the Christmas story. In a fun-filled and playful way, to knock on some very special doors together, finishing with the stable doors, to find the place where King Jesus was born.

‘Best of all, they’ll discover for themselves that the baby king has been waiting for them. He’s knocking on doors too – the doors to their hearts – hoping that they will invite him in because they are the reason that “Jesus was born at Christmas for!” So rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat! Who can it be? It really is a Christmas “wait and see”!

‘I firmly believe that very young children will best connect with God if they can naturally play with him and enjoy him. When I write my stories, as well as having little ones in mind, I write them in a way that I hope makes them easy for children’s workers to use. I think about the vocabulary and how the story might be read. I’ll include lots of playful interaction and how it might be broken down to work as a Christmas-themed set of sessions as well as keeping in mind families that might be sharing the story together at home too.

‘The accompanying resource further facilitates this with an interactive prayer, crafts and a song to help little ones and their grown-ups have fun with God as they read and play together with him inspired by the story booklets.’

Discover Steph’s story, Who Can It Be? A Christmas Wait and See, and order your copies today. You can get the booklet in English or in Welsh, and you can also download free craft activities.