I Am a Child of God

Categories: Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

I wanted my children to really understand that they are children of God, that God created them. As it says in Genesis 1:27,

" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Materials

• Butcher paper or a large roll of big paper at least 3 feet high
• Spool of ribbon
• Poster board
• Markers
• Hand-held whole punch

Session One
The children first need to have a solid understanding of God.

Start off by talking about God. Who is God? Where is God? How do we know He is here if we can't see Him? How is He expressed? What qualities does He express?

Take the different qualities that God expresses and write them on different sheets of poster board. Under the main quality write how this quality is expressed. For example: let's take the quality Love. God is Love and God expresses this Love by taking care of and protecting us. You could use the Bible story of Daniel and the Lions' Den to illustrate His Love.

Continue this until you have at least 7 different qualities, each on their own separate poster board.

Hang the poster boards on the walls or bulletin boards around the room.

Session Two
(The kids love this part)

Roll out a large piece of paper and have a child lie on the paper and trace around the child with a marker.

Cut out the life-size outline of the child.

Have the child personalize or color his cut-out.

Hang the cut-out children on the wall.

Session Three
Punch a hole in the child cut-out and a 'quality' poster board.

Take the ribbon and connect it through the hole in the poster board to the hole in the child. Have the child take the tied ribbon from the poster board and walk it over to his or her own cut-out, and tie it on. (Punch the holes high on the poster board, so the ribbon runs high.) As you are doing this, talk about how each child expresses that quality of God. For example: Love. The child expresses God's Love when he or she helps a little brother pick up his toys.

Repeat this with each 'quality' poster board for each child. Soon you will have ribbons going from a child cut-out to all the qualities of God.

You will have ribbons all over the place, but by seeing this visible connection the children will begin to see that God is expressed through them; that they express the same qualities of God because they are children of God.

Sally S. Johnston