Question: Is God Real?

Need to Know: God is Real! He Created Things That Are Impossible for People to Make!

Bible Story: Creation of Heaven and Earth 
Genesis 1-2; Romans 1:19-20; Hebrews 1:10-12

Memory Verse: But without faith (cover eyes) no one (shake head) can please God. (point up) We must believe (hand over heart) that God is real (nod head) and that He rewards everyone (hands out in front) who searches for Him. (point up) Hebrews 11:6

Preparation

If your children are of an age where they love building blanket forts, let them build a blanket fort that can serve as your mystery manor for this lesson. 

Using string, build a giant spider web obstacle course either inside or outside the house. The idea is that the kids need to climb over, under and through the strands. If you have a stopwatch, you can time them and challenge the kids to beat their best time. It will be even more fun if mom and dad also joined in and worked their way through the obstacle course.

Lesson

Start the lesson at the dining room table / in the lounge. Introduce the new topic. Over the next few weeks we will be following the story of two cousins Parker and Stevie and the mysteries that their great grandpa left for them to solve. 

But before we start with our praise and worship, let’s work through this giant spider web.  Take turns climbing through the spider web obstacle course.

Time for praise and worship. 

Encourage your children to follow the dance moves and go through effort to also join in. When we are willing to lose ourselves in God’s presence and surrender by worshiping him not just with our voices, but through movement, we discover a deeper level of intimacy with Him. Children need permission to let their hair down, and the only way you can give that permission is by letting your own hair down and dancing like David. 

Story Time

If possible gather inside or in front of your own mystery manor. Settle everyone and start reading the story of Parker and Stevie.

We catch up with cousins Parker & Stevie just as they meet up in the dark and dusty study of their Great Grandpa Pif-Paf’s old house, called the Mystery Manor.

Parker was delighted to see Stevie there. Both Parker and Stevie received mysterious letters, inviting them back to the house where they had spent so many happy hours as young children.

Stevie was less impressed. He said that the only reason he came was to save Parker from making a fool of himself. Stevie accused Parker of always being gullible. “I don’t know what you are talking about!?! I’m not gullible!” said Parker.

Stevie rolled his eyes, unable to believe that Parker believes this nonsense. “Oh Parker, remember when we were little and you thought a dragon lived in the basement of this old house because Pif-Paf read Pete’s Dragon to us the night before? And whenever the wind blew you thought for sure the trees had claws that would snatch you out of the window, thanks to that big imagination of yours!”

Parker shook his head. That was a long time ago, and he is no longer at the mercy of his own wild imagination. There is something special about this clue that Great Grandpa Pif-Paf sent to them. He can feel it in his gut. There really is something here to be discovered.

Parker and Stevie each got a different clue in their letter. After a long discussion (more like an argument) Parker finally gave in and read his clue first.

“NIGHT
 REVEAL 
CAN PROVE 
REAL.

”I have no idea what it means, but that’s why I need to see what yours says” Parker moaned.

“THROUGH THE 
STARS 
THIS
GOD IS”

Perplexed by the two clues that make almost no sense, the two cousins put their heads together to try and piece the puzzle together. “What if we put the two halves together?” asked Stevie. Parker was delighted by the idea. He was even happier that Stevie was getting into the whole mystery thing, but he dared not say anything, just in case he spoiled the mood. Ok, well there are two choices:

“NIGHT THROUGH THE
 REVEAL STARS
CAN PROVE THIS
REAL. GOD IS”

Or maybe it is the other way around, said Stevie:

“THROUGH THE NIGHT
STARS REVEAL 
THIS CAN PROVE
GOD IS REAL”

Parker was more confused than ever. “What are we suppose to do with this clue?” He asked. “Waaaaait a minute,” said Stevie. “This clue says something about proving that God is real? Great Grandpa Pif-Pafwas always trying to talk to us about God, but I’m just not buying the fact that someone you can’t see can actually be real.”

Parker could not believe what he was hearing. He asked Stevie what he meant and Stevie replied that he found it hard to believe in things he could not see. This gave Parker an idea. He took a huge book and dropped it on the floor. (Perhaps this was not such a good idea. When the book hit the ground, it sent dust flying into the air. They had dust up their noses, in their eyes, they were both coughing and spluttering) But when the dust finally settled, Parker asked Stevie why the book fell down and did not float in mid-air.

Stevie was now very annoyed. His spit had turned to mud in his mouth because Parker was trying to prove a point. “Gravity,” Stevie answered. Parker then giggled, are you sure? Have you ever seen gravity?” Stevie just shook his head. “You see, you say it is gravity, but you can’t see gravity, so how do you know that it is real?”

Stevie was catching on to Parker’s clever angle, but he confessed that he would need to see more evidence before he could believe that God was real. Parker was saying to Stevie how there is evidence of God all around us. This caused Stevie to look around and notice the old telescope. “We need to look at the stars”, he said.

Stevie got to the telescope first. Parker kept asking what he could see, and Stevie said he saw letters on a paper. Parker was hoping for a miracle, but this made no sense…until they looked on the end of the telescope. There was a paper stuck to the lens. When they read the paper, this was the story…

The cousins were so excited by this story. “This  totally makes sense! Pif-Paf left us this page from Genesis 1 right here on the telescope so that we would see that God IS real when we look at the sky and the stars and all the other things He made that are IMPOSSIBLE for people to make!” said Parker.

Stevie had to think about it for a while, but it seems like he is starting to come around.”That does make sense. There are SOME things in our world that have no scientific explanation. I guess the things that are impossible for people to make COULD point back to God.”

Stevie had more questions. He was thinking back to the Bible passage. “The Bible says that in the beginning, there was nothing except God. But on day six, God said, “Let US make people to reflect OUR own image.” If there were no people yet, how could God say “us” and “our”? Who was God referring to?”

As Stevie asked this question, Parker noticed some strange writing on the side of his great grandpa’s Bible… could this be their next clue?

To be continued.

Activity Time

Introduce the memory verse:

Memory Verse: But without faith (cover eyes) no one (shake head) can please God. (point up) We must believe (hand over heart) that God is real (nod head) and that He rewards everyone (hands out in front) who searches for Him. (point up) Hebrews 11:6

Discussion time: If you could ask God one question, what would you ask Him?

Those are great questions! Have you ever doubted if God was real? Look at the tip of your finger. Did you realize God made you and there is no one else who has the same fingerprint as you? Knowing that God made you can help you answer today’s mystery question: Is God Real? If we are going to discover the answer to this question, we’ve got to work like detectives and take some DetectiveNotes.These notes lead us to the Bible, the best book for finding truth!
Let the kids complete the activity on the detective notes.

Preschool – Grade 3
Grade 4 – Grade 5

Can you remember what we learned in the Bible Story?

1. What did God create? (Everything that you see and all that you don’t see)
2. True or False: God made everything with his hands. (False: God SPOKE and everything appeared)
3. On what day did God make light and dark? (Day One)Can anyone you know make light just appear without touching anything?(No!)
4. On what day did God make the oceans? (Day Five)Do you know anybody who can make oceans?(No!)
5. How can we know God is real from this story?(We see the things He made and know that they are impossible for people to make.) 

So here’s the answer to our mystery question & what we Need to Know today: God is Real! He Made Things That Are Impossible for People to Make!

Application Activity 

1. Collect evidence for today’s mystery question by having the group name things that are impossible to make.

2. Assign one as the “artist” and one as the “detective”. The artist will use their index finger to draw things God made (ex; trees, flowers, sun, clouds, etc.) on their partner’s back, allowing the “detective” to guess what was drawn.

3. Once an item is guessed, the pair will draw those things in the “Evidence” section on their Detective Notes. Repeat several rounds allowing kids to switch roles as the “artist” and “detective”.

Repeat the memory verse:

Memory Verse: But without faith (cover eyes) no one (shake head) can please God. (point up) We must believe (hand over heart) that God is real (nod head) and that He rewards everyone (hands out in front) who searches for Him. (point up) Hebrews 11:6