This week the Lower Elementary class has a fun lesson using the “Wordless Book” that I wanted to share here for families to try at home. The lesson is simply the Gospel:
Gold- Gold reminds me of heaven. Heaven is a wonderful place. There is no sickness, no pain and no hunger. No one ever dies. Everyone is perfectly happy. The most wonderful thing about heaven is that it is God’s home. God loves us very much and wants us to be with him. But there is something that prevents us from being with God.
Dark- The dark page represents that something that prevents us from being with God — sin. Sins are the things we do that make God unhappy. Doing, saying or thinking bad things are sins. Telling lies, disobeying your parents, hurting others and being selfish are examples of sins. All of us have sinned (Romans 3:23). The punishment for our sins is that we can’t be with God in heaven. Because of sin, our hearts are no longer clean. God is perfect. Perfectly good, and perfectly clean. Because God is perfectly clean, he can only allow those with clean hearts into heaven. On our own, we can’t make our hearts clean. But God loves us so much that he provides a way for our hearts to be made clean.
Red- Red represents the blood of Jesus — the only way our hearts can be made clean. God loves us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, to earth. Jesus was a man who was different from any other person. Jesus is God and never sinned. Jesus came from heaven to earth to take the punishment for our sins. Instead of us being punished, he took our place. Jesus died on the cross so that all the wrong things that we have done can be forgiven. And on the third day, Jesus became alive again. When Jesus took the punishment for our sins, something amazing happened.
Clean- The amazing thing is that our hearts can now be made clean — even cleaner than this clean page. But before our hearts can be made clean, we need to: Admit that we have sinned and ask God to forgive us. Believe that Jesus died on the cross to be punished instead of us, and invite Jesus into our lives to help us turn away from sin. When we do these things sincerely, our hearts will be made clean.
Green- Green reminds us of things that grow, like grass, leaves and trees. After praying for forgiveness and for Jesus to come into your life, you now have a special relationship with him. It is important that you grow in your relationship with Jesus. You can do this by talking to God, reading God’s word, the Bible, and obeying him.
This week in Sunday School the children will be making their own Wordless Book with various materials (yellow tissue paper, black construction paper, red string, white ribbon, green twine) of these colors and adding them to each page. You can also make a booklet with construction paper to “read” this story to your children and for them to share with their friends.
An additional resource we are using is “The Garden, The Curtain and The Cross” with a beautiful illustration of the Gospel!
