Today we discussed the existence of God and how he created the world and why he created the world. The children grasped pretty well that God has always existed and will always exist. He has no beginning and no end. It's a pretty hard concept to wrap your brain around, so I was impressed that they had a good understanding of that.
I asked the kids, "Why did God create us?" He didn't need to create us, so why did he? They pretty much agreed that God create us because he wanted to. It is true that God created us because he wanted to in order to share his love. God is all about love. He created the birds of the air and the fish of the sea and all of the stars and planets because he is overwhelmed with love and he wants to share his love with us.
We then discussed the Bible and that the Bible is a collection of books that has been inspired by God and written by the people that God has revealed himself to. We read the creation of the world in the book of Genesis chapter 1.
I passed out a picture of the world with the children, and they wrote on the picture different things that God created like: birds, fish, trees, the water and the land. In addition to this project, I passed out 7 popsicle sticks and had the kids number the sticks 1-7 and then passed out pictures of the things that God created during those seven days.
"God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from darkness. God called the light day and the darkness night....It was day one. (Gensis 1:3-4)
"God said, "Let there be a huge space between the waters. Let it separate water from water." He separated the water that was under the space from the water that was above it. God called the huge space "sky". It was day two (Genesis 1:6-8)
"God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place. Let dry ground appear. He called the dry ground land. He called the waters oceans. Then God said, Let the land produce plants. Let them bear their own seeds. And let there be trees on the land that bear fruit. It was day three (Genesis 1:9-13)
"God said, "Let there be lights in the huge space of the sky. Let them separate the day from the night. God made two great lights. He made the larger to rule over the day. He made the smaller to rule over the night. He also made the stars. It was day four. (Genesis 1:14-19)
"God said, "Let the waters be filled with living things. Let birds fly above the earth. He created every living and moving thing. It was day five (Genesis 1:20-23)
"God said, "Let the land produce all kinds of living things and creatures. Let there be livestock, and creatures that move on the ground, and wild animals. (Genesis 1:24-25)
"Then God said, "Let us make man in our likeness. Let them rule over the fish in the waters and the birds of the air. God created man in his own likeness. He created them in the image of God." (Genesis 1:26-27)
"By the seventh day, he had finished his work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all of his work." (Genesis 2:2)
I touched on the fact that God is 3 persons in one and pointed out that in the book of Genesis that God says, "Let US make man in OUR likeness." He is the Father (Creator), the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit (the love that flows between the father and the son), and I used the family as an analogy. The family is one unit and has separate distinct people. A family has a father, and a mother, and children, and even though there are separate and distinct people in a family, the family is still one unit and each member has love for the other members just like the Trinity.
If you have an opportunity through the week, I encourage you to read the first book of Genesis with your children and discuss how God created the world and continue to talk to them about the love that God has for us and that God is all love and all good.
We closed the class with the Our Father and we had a good class, so everyone was rewarded a package of fruit snacks before they were dismissed from the Church. It was a pleasure working with your children, and I hope you enjoy the posts on facebook and the blog. I look forward to any comments.
God Bless and PAX,
Laura
No comments:
Post a Comment