Mystery question: Is God Really in Control When Bad Things Happen?
Need to Know: No Matter What Happens, God is in Control!
Bible Story: Jonah & the Huge FishJonah 1-3
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: (Johna and The Fish Craft)
Praise and Worship Time
Lesson:
Welcome back to our MYSTERY MANNER series. Am I the only one who is getting really excited for Stevie and Parker to solve this Mystery?
Story time:
We catch up with Stevie and Parker in the creepy and dark basement. The basement is really dark, the two cousins keep bumping into each other. They are both feeling a little creeped out, but they cannot help but remember all the good times they spent in the basement with their great-grandpa.
The basement was one of the places where their great-grandpa spent time telling them stories about God. He sure loved spending time down there with God. Parker decides that they should investigate the rocking chair that Pif_Paf used to sit in. Sevie was less convinced. He was weary of rats or other creatures having nested in the chair.
After much convincing Parker got Stevie to help him check under the chair. They found what Stevie thought was a false clue. It was a really, really, really smelly old box. Inside there was an old sock…. and a funny tube. Parker wanted to break the tube, to search for a clue on the inside….
JUST THEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT…. and they could not see a thing.
Parker started to panic. The dark can play tricks on one’s mind and eyes. He was convinced that there was someone outside the Mystery Mannor and they had switched off the power. Stevie was more level headed. He was convinced it was merely a fuse that had blown. Parker even started trying to convince Stevie that there were aliens out to get them… imagine that. ALIENS.
Stevie was getting a little irritated with Parker. SO he decided to put him out of his missery. He finally revealed what the tube was. It was a mini black light. ” Black lights emit a type of UV light that shows you things you can’t see with your naked eye.” Stevie explained. This confused Parker even more: “My eyes are naked?!?!” he asked. Stevie did not know whether he should laugh or cry: ” Oh, brother. No your eyes aren’t NAKED! It’s just another way of saying that this light shows us things we can’t normally see.”
It was at this point that Stevie found a piece of paper with the following Bible story on it:
“Look! There’s more! I love reading the stories Great Grandpa Pif-Paftalks about in his journal. But I wonder why he wanted us to hear THIS story?”Parker asked. Stevie grabs note from Parker: “I don’t know but let’s keep reading!”
Stevie was so excited that he could not contain himself: “Of course! Great Grandpa Pif-Paf wanted us to hear the story of Jonah so that we can know that all of this crazy bad stuff that is happening, doesn’t need to scare us.” While Parker and Stevie were discussing how God is always in control, Parker noticed something glowing in the lid of the box. It was their next clue:
“When things are looking bad
And there is no one in control,
Find the answer to what you see
Near the place where one burns coal.”
While the cousins were discussing the meaning of the clue the lights came on… and was when it suddenly hit them: if the lights hadn’t gone out, then they wouldn’t have found the clue with that black light!
But they still had no idea what the rest of the clue meant.. did they have to coal and look for their next clue where people burned coal?
To be continued…
Wow! What an adventure and what an awesome reminder that bad things can help us to find the good things in life. Let’s see if we can remember what we learned.
1. What did God tell Jonah to do? (Go to Nineveh &preach to the bad people there)
2. God let something bad happen to Jonah while he was out at sea. What happened? (God sent a huge storm which almost made the ship break into pieces; the sailors threw him overboard& a fish swallowed him)
3. Was God in control of sending the storm and the fish that swallowed Jonah?(Yes)
4. What good came out of the bad things that happened to Jonah? (Jonah realized he needed to obey God & do what he promised he would do)
5. Has something bad ever happened to you? (Allow responses) Who is in control, even when bad things happen? (God)
So when we’re wondering “Is God really in control when bad things happen?” we can have faith and believe what we need to know today: No Matter What Happens, God is in Control!
CRAFT TIME: MAKE YOUR JONAH AND THE FISH CRAFT
