THE BASIC REVELATION IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

(For Younger Children)

Lesson Two: God's Good pleasure (part 2)

Objective:

Materials:

1. Illustrations of miniature breed of horses. Possible sources: Texas Highways magazine October 1985 pp. 12- 19; large-format books in general.
2. Two crowns-card board home-mades, etc. and other props (e.g. large towel or small blanket, etc. for a cape for the king and prince story.
3. Illustrations from Lesson One in this series.

Review:

1. ASK children to tell what they remember from Lesson one
2. Keep soliciting feedback from them until one comes up with the objective of that lesson. Re-state it; repeat it; have them repeat it.
3. RECALL last lesson's stories; use illustrations; ask how the king's sons were like him how the archer's ons were like him: how the roses were the first one. If you saw one of the king's sons, would you know what the king was like? If you saw one of the archer's sons, would you know what the archer was like? If you saw one of the roses, would you know what the first rose was like? How would you know?

Implementation:

1. SHOW the illustration of the miniature horse. Point out in the illustration its relative size; also use a yardstick to demonstrate how tall it would be in relation to the children. Can they believe that there has ever been a horse that small? Some of the children may have themselves seen one of these horses, at the State Fair, for instance. If they hadn't seen the one at the Fair, would they have believed that there ever had been a horse that small?
2. TELL story of "Quicksilver": There were some people who wouldn't believe it here is what happened. Not so very many years ago, there were no small horses like the one in this picture anywhere in the whole world. There were some horses named Shetland ponies that were smaller than "regular" horses, but nowhere near as small as the one you see here. Nowhere in the whole world were there any horses like this one. Then one day a mother horse who was small herself for a Shetland had a particularly little colt, and he didn't grow up quite as big as Shetlands usually do. There were other small-sized Shetlands born from time to time, and a horse keeper had the idea of keeping them around and seeing just how small their baby horses would turn out to be. Sure enough. the smaller Shetlands kept having smaller and smaller baby horses, until one day one of the baby horses was born and grew up to be no bigger than a DOG! And the thing was this little horse didn't look funny with too short legs or something; no, he was a perfectly-formed horse, just a miniature one! The neighbors on the next farm thought he was really something special, and they told the other neighbors about him. When they went into town on an errand, they told the storekeeper where they bought feed for their own animals that there was a little horse on the farm next to them that was no bigger than dog. The storekeeper just couldn't believe them--he said he'd been around horses all his life and sold feed to horse keepers all his life and had never, ever seen anything like that.
   They told lots of other people in town about the little horse on and none of them would believe it. At best they thought that the neighbor must be exaggerating when he told how short the little horse was. finally the horse keeper brought "Quicksilver"--for that was the little horse's name--in to town to the feed store so the storekeeper could see for himself. And do you know what happened? The store keeper said "Well yes he is the smallest horse I've ever seen --really very unusually small. BUT, he may be just a freak, an accident. Just to have only one horse born that small doesn't prove anything."
   The horse keeper realized that for people to believe that there was a new size of horse living on the earth now, he would have to see if "Quicksilver" would have sons like himself, or if "Quicksilver's" sons would all turn out to be much bigger than him, not like him at all. Well, sure enough, "Quicksilver's" sons turned out to be just as small as he was! The horse keeper sent out photos of "Quicksilver" to lots of other horse keepers all over the country, asking if they would like to buy one of these new, tiny-sized horses? They wrote back and said they could hardly believe there was a horse that small, and that the photo could have been taken in a special way to make the horse look small--no, they would have to see one of these tiny horses in person to believe there were such horses.
   What could the horse keeper do? He couldn't send "Quicksilver" to so many places all at one time! How could he prove that there was such a little horse? He could send "Quicksilver's" sons, to show what "Quicksilver" was like! So that is what he did. And when the other horse keepers saw one of "Quicksilver's" sons then they believed that there really was a horse that small, and that there really were such horses living on the earth.
3. RELATE the story to the objective: "Quicksilver's" sons showed what he was like and God wants sons to show what He is like.
4. ACT OUT with props the story of King Hiram and Prince Horam: King Hiram was a great king, with lands here and there and everywhere many of them so far away from his castle that they had never even seen him. The people there didn't know what their king was like at all! All they knew was his name. Was he a tall man? a short, stout man? a skinny man? a man with a long nose and big feet? What was he like??? King Hiram was not a man who liked to travel about very much you see, and when he had business one day with a town away far off from his castle, he called his oldest son and sent him to that town in his place. This son, Prince Horam was very much like his father King Hiram Some people in the palace coming up from behind either one of them couldn't tell which one, the King or the Prince, was there in front of them. And you had to get very close up to either one to tell whether it was the king sitting there or the prince. Well, when Prince Horam came to this town very far away, where neither the people there then or their fathers had ever seen the king, the people were very excited, as you may imagine, and made a great holiday, and all came out to see the Prince And they all said, "Now we know what the King Is like, finally! Because we have seen the prince and everyone says Prince Horam is just like King Hiram!"
5. TIE this story to the objective also comparing how God wants sons like Himself so people will know what He is like, also.
6. SING, to the tune of "Three Blind Mice":
   God wants sons! God wants sons!
   Just like Him! Just like Him!
   God wants some sons that are just like Him!
   God wants some sons that are just like Him!
   That's what He wants! That's what He wants!

Gospel Suggestion: