A NIGHT TO REMEMBER â—½ HOME
Do your kiddos know that resurrection means giving life to something that was dead? Hopefully, they will know more after this lesson, so fitting for the Easter season. There are so many cool ideas out there, like resurrection eggs, making resurrection rolls in the oven, and all sorts of hands on activities to teach our children about the power of life after death. So why not focus on it even more? How can we ever get enough of the power of the resurrection?
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Preparation: Call the family together to move around the house together as you learn. Have some hot buttery rolls in the oven ready to enjoy at the end of the study.
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Plants – Take the kids outside and look around the yard. Ask them to find some plants that look a bit like they’re dying, or plants that look like they’re thriving. Ask the kids what makes the difference between the two. (Water, sunlight, food).
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Can a droopy almost dead plant come back to life with bit of attention? Yes!
Can a completely dead plant come back to life? Not without a miracle.
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Food - Head inside and open the refrigerator door and find something that looks like it might need to be thrown away because it’s no longer edible. (It might be brown, or mushy, or out of date.) Toss the items that are not fit to eat.
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Can moldy mushy out of date food become good to eat? Probably not. Best to go to the store to get something new.
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Toys – Now, move the family into the bedrooms and look through the toys. Are there “dead” toys that have laid in a drawer or on the shelves of closets for a while, because they’re broken or need batteries? Find a few.
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Can broken toys be brought back to life? Sometimes they can! Ask the kids to name ways they can be used again.
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People – Move to the sofa and sit close together and talk about people the family knows that might need a bit of watering, because they look droopy. (Maybe an elderly neighbor that walks slowly?) (Maybe a homeless guy on the corner?) What about friends that aren’t so nice to be around because they have stinky attitudes like that molded cheese? (Are there people that we sometimes ignore and toss aside because we don’t like them?) And finally, do we have folks we know that are broken? They’ve had a hard time in life and seem sad? (Maybe a sick friend, or one whose parent is gone, or all sorts of reasons.)
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Jesus came to give life to all of these folks, including us! God saw that the world needed a Savior, one that could rescue them and bring new life where death was once present.
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Jesus’ death on the cross and then his resurrection (coming back to life) bring us all hope that when we believe, we too will live forever and never die. Sure, our earthly bodies will someday pass away, but there’s the inside of us that gains new life because of Jesus, and we’ll get a new body, too!
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Bring out the rolls and the butter.
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What did these rolls look like before they were made? (They were nothing, just ingredients)
When the ingredients were stirred together, were the rolls edible? (No! Just gooey dough.)
How did these rolls become edible and so good to eat? (They were transformed by the baking in the oven – what a cool miracle!)
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Jesus’ death and resurrection were the ultimate act of love for all of us. When we read John 3:16 – God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes will have eternal life – we are then resurrected with Him, when we too believe. No lumpy dough, only fragrant and full of life – to share with all the world around us.
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Enjoy the rolls and give thanks for resurrection life!