Blessed are the Persecuted

To illustrate this final beatitude, we returned to a story in Acts, where Peter and John are imprisoned briefly for daring to heal a lame man in the name of Jesus. First we introduced Peter & John, who were going to the temple to preach. We put up a picture of the temple (this lovely one that I found online somewhere), and then the story said two adults were supposed to carry the “lame beggar” to sit in front of it. But our beggar didn’t want to be carried, so she walked to her place—hm, shades of charlatanism? ;-) Then Peter & John come along & demonstrate by pulling their pockets inside out that they had no money to give him. However, in Jesus name they could give him healing, so they did!

The lame man was very happy and was jumping around praising God. But then along came the priests (in neckties as we didn’t have enough priestly robes for them all) who were NOT happy with Peter & John giving credit to Jesus for the healing. So they haul them off to prison.

The prison was nasty: cold, damp, and there were RATS! At this point we threw a couple of our cat’s toy mice at the prisoners’ feet and they “eeked” most convincingly!

The next day, a guard brought them out and the priests asked them again how they did this healing, and again they said it was in the name of Jesus. Some of the priests wanted to kill them, but they couldn’t deny the miracle, so they let them go with threats (guard grabs them by collars). They go back to the other believers and praise God that all they had to do was spend one night in prison. But some of the believers said, it might be worse next time! But they said, that’s okay, it’s a privilege to suffer for Jesus and show Him how much we love Him! Then they got to their knees and prayed, “God, give us Your courage.”

Years ago when we did this story, game time consisted of everyone getting to ride this “bouncy horse” that I borrowed from the daycare center. But the center is packing to move & we couldn’t find the horse anywhere. However, we had these huge garbage bags at home, big enough for my regular therapy ball. Using the mouth of the bag for a handle, the ball was big enough for adults or kids to ride and shout “Praise the Lord” at the same time.

Craft was “Peter and John in prison.”