God is Eternal

Many times when Jesus was out preaching, there were people who argued with him and insulted him.	Introduce Jesus—in white vest
Your mother got pregnant before she got married. You don't even know for sure who your father was. As for us, we are all good Jews, directly descended from our forefather Abraham.	Have one adult say this
Jesus said to them, if you really were good descendants of Abraham, you would listen to me. Abraham knew the truth when he heard it.	(narrator)
They said, oh, you're crazy, if Abraham were here today, he would say so too!	Second adult
Jesus said, well, but I happen to know Abraham quite well, and he was glad when he knew I was coming to Israel.	(narrator)
What, you've seen Abraham? Are you nuts? You're not even 50 years old yet, and Abraham died more than a thousand years ago!	third adult
Ah, but I existed even before Abraham was born.	(narrator)
What! That's the same as saying you are GOD! That's sick! Get out of here!!	All throw stones at him.
Now, it's getting close to the time when Jesus is going to die, and he knows it. It hurts to be around all these insults all the time. So he takes his three best friends and says, let's get away together.	Introduces three friends: Peter, James & John (name tags)
They go for a hike, up a tall mountain.	act like they are climbing
Suddenly, Jesus starts changing before their eyes! His face and his clothes get very bright, so bright his friends can hardly look at him without hurting their eyes!	three friends don sunglasses
Suddenly, out of nowhere, there are two other men with Jesus. Jesus is very happy and runs and gives them both hugs	two more boys; Jesus hugs them, says, great to see you!
He introduces them to Peter, James and John. Guys, do you know who these are? These are my great friends, Moses and Elijah! The same Moses who gave us the 10 commandments, and the same Elijah who called down God's fire on the altar!	have Jesus put on name tags as narrator introduces them
Jesus, Moses and Elijah start talking about Jesus' coming death & they encourage him to be strong	they "huddle"
Wow! Jesus three friends didn't know what to say! You know how sometimes when you don't know what to say, you end up saying something stupid?	(ask all)
Peter says, um, Jesus, I have this great idea. It's near the festival of booths; why don't I build booths for you and Moses and Elijah?	goes & taps Jesus' arm
All of a sudden a cloud covered the mountain, and they heard a voice from heaven saying, This is my Son; You should listen to HIM.	drape large sheet over all
Then when the cloud lifted, they saw Jesus by himself, looking like he always did.	take M & E away along with sheet
P, J & J are feeling pretty scared still. Jesus comforts them, but tells them not to tell anyone what they have seen until after he has risen from the dead, otherwise no one would believe it.	Jesus pats them all on back They all walk back down the mountain

I had a hard time coming up with a story for this theme. In fact, I didn't come up with one at all—this one came from my husband! He came up with the game idea, too, which was much appreciated. That's the second time he's come up with a game recently (and he helped me think up one for this coming Sunday on "God is unchanging" too. Might have to start putting him in the rotation to plan & lead games! I don't think of him as a "game" type of person—but then, I never was either. God works in mysterious ways!

What we did for the game was to say, eternity is a long time; who can do XXX the longest. (Stand on one foot, do toe-touches, sit perfectly still, etc.) For a craft, I collected twigs in the park, and florist foam to stick them in, and we all built "booths".

Adult Bible study was on Psalm 90:1-2.

Our kid that had the meltdown last week was not one of the boys who were supposed to wear sunglasses in the story, but one boy refused his, so I offered them to Chun Lai & they were a hit for sure. He was very good the whole rest of the morning. Check him out in his cool shades (thanks for the loan, Joy)!