Lesson 4
Days of Creation – Day 4
Unit Game
Days of Creation Hide & Seek
Have them find the things hidden around the room and when they find them ask them what they are. If they don’t know, tell them. Steer the conversation to the fact that God made each thing they found. Ask them about their favorite thing God created. Have them sort and put away the items as you ask about them.
PRAYER TIME
Have them find their circle and sit down
Today we are going to practice I’m Sorry Prayers! We all do things that are wrong sometimes, right? Sometimes we say things that hurt people we love. Sometimes we don’t share.
Does that make you feel bad when you do something wrong? Allow answers. It makes me feel bad too! I don’t like that feeling, do you? Allow answers.
But guess what? That’s a good thing! Yes! Feeling sorry for doing something bad is good!
Have you ever burned yourself? Or stubbed your toe? It hurts! Do you want to do it again when you hurt yourself? Allow answers.
No, of course we don’t want to do it again! But God made our bodies to feel pain so we would know not to do that again so we can be safe. God also gave us something like that inside us too! It’s called our conscience. Can you say conscience? Help them say the word.
Our conscience makes us feel sorry for doing bad things so we don’t do the bad thing again! Isn’t that a great idea that God had? Allow answers. Yes, it is a great idea! Because otherwise we would hurt people and ourselves all the time and not even know it!
Did you know that God is hurt when we do bad things? Allow answers.
Do you know what it’s called when we do bad things? Allow guesses.
It’s called sin! When we sin we can’t be close to God. It keeps us from being close to Him. That hurts God, because He loves us and wants to be with us. Just like our parents on earth. If we disobey our mommy and daddy we hurt them and things can’t be right between us again until we say we are sorry. But once we say I’m sorry we can hug and things get better again.
It’s the same way with God! God doesn’t want us to be kept away from Him by sin, so He sent Jesus to make a way for us to be close to Him again. All we have to do is say we are sorry and thank Jesus for dying for our sin. Sin is very, very bad. It’s so bad that it makes us die! God doesn’t want us to have to die, so Jesus died for us, so we don’t have to! We will go to heaven to be with Him because of what Jesus did for us!
Ask who wants to pray first, hand the Prayer Buddy to them and help them pray. They can pray silently if they want to. Ask if they’d like to say they’re sorry to God for anything and assure them God will forgive them.
Example: “I’m sorry God for sinning and doing bad things that hurt you and hurt my family and friends and hurt me. Please forgive me! I want to be close to you and go to heaven and be with you someday. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sins so I don’t have to. I want you to help me not to sin any more. In Jesus’ name Amen.”
(Optional ending of the lesson could be here and continue the next Sunday with the rest of the lesson. Optional craft: Cut out hearts from red construction paper, have the children color the heart with black crayon to have “boo-boos” that are from sinning. Explain that sin hurts our hearts as well as other people’s hearts. Then hand out bandaids to cover the wounds caused by sin and allow students to stick them on top of the wounds. Explain that when we tell Jesus we are sorry and accept what He’s done on the cross He takes away our sin and heals our hearts. Example below from https://sundayschoolzone.com/activity/jesus-healed-a-royal-officials-son-bible-craft/)
LESSON
Get out the Days of Creation Numbers and hand them out to children as evenly as possible. Tell them to hold onto them until they hear their day. Make sure they know which number they’re holding!
We are going to read a book together about the days of Creation! Do you know who created everything? . . . . That’s right, God did! Before there was anything at all created, God was there! That’s because He is what? Can you remember the word? ETERNAL! And what does that mean? That means He has always been there and always will be. Isn’t that amazing?
The Bible says that in the beginning God.… Wait for them to finish the verse. Let’s say it together!
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Try to get them to repeat it three times.
Do you know how long it took God to create the world? Wait for guesses.
It took Him only 6 days! And what did He do on the 7th day? Wait for answers.
He rested from His work of creating everything. God also made the seventh day holy—that means special and different from all other days. That means the seventh day belongs to God! He wants us to take a day off from work too and worship Him and rest on that special day. That’s what we do when we come to church on Sunday!
We are going to read this book together about each day that God created things and I’ll need your help. We are going to sing about each day of creation to the tune of Frere Jacques. Sing or hum the tune so they know it.
When we sing about your day of creation, you get to put your number on the wall, so pay attention!
Show them the wall or board where you want them to stick their number when you get to it. Show them the Creation Book and read/sing it to them. On each day have them put their number on the wall/board.
Very good job singing and paying attention! Wasn’t that fun? God created so many beautiful things didn’t He?
Now we are going to work on our own Creation Book again.
CRAFT
Get out supplies for Day 4 craft and hand out their Day 4 page. Help them draw or glue the sun & moon on the page and stick the stars on the page.
Suggested Discussion:
Do you know what God created on Day 4? Allow guesses.
The sun, the moon & the stars! When does the sun come out? Allow guesses.
In the day! And when do the moon and the stars shine? Allow guesses.
At night!
What does the sun do for us? Allow guesses.
It keeps us warm. It makes light. It helps things grow so we can eat food. Think about a world without the sun! Wouldn’t that be terrible? What would it be like? Allow guesses.
It would be dark and cold! Do you like the dark? Allow answers.
But what makes the night beautiful? Allow guesses.
The moon and the stars! They are very beautiful! The moon also makes the night a little bit light so we can see where we are going. And God also put the stars there to show us which direction to go. If you got lost did you know the stars could help you know which way to go? Isn’t that cool?
Let’s thank God for the sun and for the moon and the stars!
PLAY TIME/MOVIE