Wonders of His Love by Champ Thornton

This Advent devotional is divided into four weeks with five days within each week, plus one extra day for Christmas Day. This works out to 21 days of devotions. Each week has a theme or wonder: Jesus is the Light of the World, Jesus is the Fruitful Branch, Jesus is the Good Shepherd, Jesus is God with Us, and Jesus is the Bread of Life. Each of these themes is built off of scripture that mainly comes from Isaiah.

Each week, days one through four differ slightly in their composition, but there is usually scripture, followed by the author’s commentary, and ending with a few questions. Day five has a carol to sing and several activities to choose from. Every week there is a new paper ornament to make. Some of the other activities include making sugar cookies, serving someone in your community, playing games, or making art. Days one through four would take you approximately five minutes to do. Day five, Activity Day, will differ in length depending on the activity chosen.

Ages: Best for children 2-8 years old

This devotional is great for busy families as it is one of the shorter devotionals I have seen. You could certainly expand the devotional time by adding all of the activities from day five throughout the week. I really appreciate how the author uses the Old Testament text to show how Christ is the fulfillment of these scriptures, which we don’t often see in devotionals for younger children. While most of the activities correlate to the week’s theme well, there are a few that are a bit of a stretch, but might be fun nonetheless.

While most things about this devotional I really love, there was one week that left me wanting more. The fourth week, Jesus is God with Us, dives into Jesus as the Savior, but there is hardly a mention of sin. In fact, I went back to look and in those moments of searching, I couldn’t find sin mentioned anywhere. The only allusion to it is in the questions section on Day Four where it says, “What kind of things does Jesus save from?” and “What kind of hard things do you need rescuing from?” I think this was a huge opportunity missed by the author to clearly explain the gospel, instead of dancing around it a bit. Also, do be aware that this devotional often uses the NLT translation.

Overall, I think this is a good resource for your family, but I would probably add more about sin and needing a Savior at the appropriate times.

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