CHILDREN OF THE HEAVENLY FATHER

Lesson One

THE HAIRS OF YOUR HEAD ARE ALL NUMBERED

Burden to Impart:

Our heavenly Father values us more than we could ever imagine.

Facts to Teach:

1. Since this is the first lesson of this series we must firstly teach the children about the Fatherhood of God.
   1. Because God is the Creator, He is the source and origin of all life in the universe (Psa.36:9; John 1:4).
   2. Because God has given life to all intelligent beings--both heavenly (angelic) and earthly (human)--He is the "Father of every family in the heavens and on the earth" (Eph. 3:15).
   3. When we receive God's Word and believe in God's Son (Rom. 10:8-9; John 1:12-13), we are born of Him and He becomes our Father in a very special way. Then God the Creator becomes our heavenly Father.
2. After teaching this first point the foundation is laid to infuse and impress the children with the objective of the lesson--the Father values us.
   1. We always keep a careful account and a close watch on everything we value and love.
   2. Although the shepherd has 100 sheep, he counts all of them (Luke 15:4-6) and knows all of them (John 10:14, 27).
   3. Although a man may be very rich and could lose count of all of his riches and possessions, he could never forget the number of children he has, or their names.
   4. Although there is a world full of people, our heavenly Father knows us, loves us, and values us to such an extent that even the hairs on your head are numbered.

Lesson dialogue:

How important are you? Do you know that you are very important? Who loves you the most? Your mother? No. Even your dearest, dearest friend--would he or she love you enough to count all the hairs of your head? No. It would take months to do. And then, would you count his or hers?

But our hairs are all numbered by our heavenly Father. And not only ours, but those of every one of His children. He cares for you from your head to your feet. Everything about you is important to Him, even every hair upon your head.

He also knows how many steps we take (Job 14:16). He is counting every step, waiting for us to come to Him. The most important steps we take in our whole life are the ones we take coming to our Father God. So our Father waits and counts every step we take.