Week Three, God created People

This past Sunday we focused on how God created us, and loves us.  But first, we reviewed our memory verse (In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth) & each one who could say it after review got their butterfly stamp.  Next, we took out the creation pictures we’d used last week and everyone had to find one thing in the picture that God created.  For each one, we sang our “God created…so we thank Him” song.

                Then we passed out worksheets with five sets of four pictures, one in each set being something that God did not create: e.g. rabbit, fish, tree, car.  Most of the kids had to think at least a little.  I thought it was interesting that everyone knew that God made a tree, but several were ready to choose that God did not make an apple.  (The fact that there was a television in that set of pictures didn’t give them pause.)  Okay, so if God didn’t create those things, who did?  People.  And who created people?  God.  (I need to clue in the helpers not to volunteer the answers to the questions!)

                We explained that the Bible says God created people “in His own image.”  Does that mean everyone looks exactly alike?  Not hardly!  Here we broke up into pairs, each pair with one adult helper.  They were supposed to look together at what they had in common (two eyes, one nose, etc.) vs. what were differences (shape of ears, fingers, height, weight—hair and eye color didn’t work for our group, ha!)  Then each helper introduced one special thing about their kids.  As each was shared, we put their names in the “God created” song—“God created…and God loves him/her.”

                We repeated the concept that being created in God’s image didn’t mean we all look alike.  But that one thing it means is that we can create things, too!  Everybody got a small ball of playdough and were told they could make “anything they wanted.”  I knew this was a stretch for our kids, creative imagination not being their strong point in general.  But they responded well to suggestions and/or lots of help.  When they were done, we had one helper take them all out into the hallway for a minute while the rest of us distributed their creations around on various chairs.  Then they came back in and had to find their own creation.  We talked about how they didn’t want to end up with anyone else’s; each wanted the one that he/she had made because it was special to them.  Which is how God feels about us—because He made us, we are special to Him and he wouldn’t trade us for anything!

                The application for this was that because we are special to Him, we can talk to Him about anything.  We asked each kid whether they were happy or sad.  They all said happy and all gave reasons.  (Except the one boy who had fallen fast asleep while I was talking to the first two kids in the row, ha!  Aren’t I the exciting teacher!)  Then we offered a brief prayer with/for each child, thanking God for the thing that made them happy.

                We ended up the morning with something I was so excited to be able to pass out to every kid (except two newcomers, who were promised theirs for next week if they come back): I’d discovered this wonderful website, coloringpagecreator.com, where you can upload your photos and presto, they become coloring pages!  So everyone got a picture of themselves to color!  (The two new kids got generic creation coloring pages, but I have their pictures printed out and ready for this Sunday!)