Abraham Day 5: God Provides
*There are 3 activities for this day’s lesson. Feel free to choose one or two of the activities OR spread them out over several days! :)
- Materials:
- Bible – I like the NIrV (New International Reader’s Version)
- Children’s Bible with illustrations (I’m using the Jesus Storybook Bible for this lesson)
- Activity #1: Baby doll used for Isaac on day 3, other special/favorite toys
- Activity #2: Toy ram (or printed picture), Toilet Paper binoculars, Gift box with baby Jesus picture inside
- Activity #3: Picture of cross to paint, color, or decorate
Day 5: Lesson & Activities
- Open Bible to Genesis 22. Ask if child wants to touch God’s Word. Touch gently. Then, “read” story. God asked Abraham to give Him a present to say “I love You” to God: his son, his only son, the son he loved – Isaac. Set Bible down.
Activity #1: A Sacrifice
- Talk about how very special the doll is. Hug it, carry it. It says “I love you” to God when we give Him our very special things. Encourage child to give the doll to you and say, “I love you.” Hug the doll and say, “Oh! Thank you!” Practice giving other special toys.
Balls are her absolute favorite thing right now!
- Pick up Bible to continue “reading.” I also used our “baby Isaac” doll to hold her interest as I shared this part of the story. Abraham was going to give God his only son Isaac as a sacrifice. That meant he would have to kill Isaac! Oh, no! Abraham trusted God. But then God said, “STOP! I know that you love me. Do not kill Isaac.” God provided a ram for the sacrifice instead of Isaac! Hooray! God provides for us just in time.
Children’s Bible Reading: Use TP binoculars (or a cut piece of TP tube) to peek at the provided ram in Jesus Storybook Bible (pg 66-67). Peek at Abraham and Isaac also.
God sees and God provides.
Activity #2: God’s Provision
- Find toy ram “hidden” in the room. Katelyn was so excited to find the ram. I hid it in plain sight with her watching, and she still got excited to go see it and get it!
- Peek through the binoculars to find it. I didn’t really have Katelyn do this because she was so excited to just take off and go get the ram each time. But a little bit older child would probably have fun searching for the ram with binoculars.
- (Tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It) God provides just what we need – oh yes, He does! God provides just what we need – oh yes, He does! Just look around and you will see what God has done for you and me! God provides just what we need – oh yes, He does!
- The final hiding place for the ram was inside the gift box with baby Jesus.
- Read John 3:16 from Bible. Just like Abraham was willing to give his son Isaac, God gave His only, very special Son to us – Jesus! God said “I love you” with His sacrifice. And like the ram saved Isaac’s life, Jesus died on the cross as the sacrifice so that we don’t have to die! God provided for our greatest need.
- (Tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It) God provided for our greatest need – oh yes, He did! God provided for our greatest need – oh yes, He did! Just look around and you will see that Jesus died for you and me! God provided for our greatest need – oh yes, He did!
Activity #3: Jesus’ Sacrifice – God’s Provision
- Paint or decorate picture of cross. I drew a picture of a cross and had Katelyn dip one finger in red paint and then put dots on the cross to decorate it.
- Peek at God’s provision through TP tube binoculars
- The first time Katelyn fingerpainted, I showed her how to smear the paint by moving her hands all around on the paper. So it’s hard for her to do anything different. She loves dots and enjoyed painting the dots with her finger, but at the end, she of course had to smear it. Oh, well. It’s her painting!
- To keep Katelyn from touching her painting while it dries, I place it inside our shower downstairs since we rarely use it. Katelyn likes to peek through the glass door to check on her paintings.
Closing: Psalm 67:6, God, our God, blesses us. Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins. What a blessing from God!