As the world continues to grapple with COVID19, wearing face masks has become a reality for people every day. This means putting masks on children who have been considered high-risk carriers of the virus. Wearing masks is a way of “wrapping” their faces for the purpose of protecting others along with themselves. But wearing masks for long periods is cumbersome and many find them incredibly inconvenient.

For Christmas 2020, our children ministry will most likely happen online. Despite our inability to gather in-person, our children committee is planning to put together a simple video with our children singing the festive lyrics of a Christmas carol (That’s the plan, but things can certainly change). To keep them protected, all participating students will film sections separately at their home (with the help of their parents). To keep our children safe from the perils of online sharing (and to reflect the reality of the pandemic), the children will perform wearing face masks. Keeping their faces covered during the holidays has led our team to name the event, “Wrapped for Christmas.”

While the name “Wrapped for Christmas” is a fun way to reflect the ‘new normal’ of wearing face masks for the upcoming holiday season, its meaning extends to the first Christmas story. In Luke 2, when Jesus was born, he was wrapped in simple cloths and placed in a manger because there was no guest room available (v.7). The Son of God was laid in a dirty feed trough surrounded by farm animals because Joseph and Mary did not have a clean place to stay when he was born. Yet despite this incredible inconvenience, his humble beginnings would continue to be reflected in his actions and words during his adult ministry. And ultimately, Jesus would become the Divine Servant King and Saviour of humanity.

Our children committee hopes that this “Wrapped for Christmas” event will enable our children (and their families) to see that, like face masks, the circumstances around the birth of Jesus was really inconvenient. But while face masks continue to keep us safe during this season of COVID19, the arrival of Jesus was to ultimately save those who believe in him as their Lord and Saviour (John 3:16). The wrapped gift of Jesus was the greatest Christmas present because his divine purpose reconciled humanity with our Heavenly Father.

Derek Wong serves as the Children’s Pastor at East Toronto Chinese Baptist Church.