THE BASIC REVELATION IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

(For Younger Children)

Lesson Six: God's Choosing (Part 2)

Objectives:

Materials:

1. Lesson Five in this series
2. A good number of unpolished rocks/ gravel, different sizes, colors and shapes.
3. At least one polished stone or shiny crystal or piece of jewelry with a precious or semi-precious stone.

Review:

1. Ask, what is it that God wants most of all? What is His plan to get this? How did these people get to be the ones God makes into His sons? He chose them especially for this.
2. Sing the song from Lesson Five.
3. Have someone (s) re-tell the story of Ellen from Lesson Five. How come the ring was given to Ellen and not to someone else? (She was chosen to receive it.) Did Ellen do something special so her grandmother would choose her? (No, she wasn't even born yet when she was chosen!) Does anyone:
4. Recall the verse/portion of verse memorized last time? Help children; re-memorize it.
5. Ask what that verse means.
6. Re-Explain

Implementation

1. Show unpolished stones. Do you know what these are? Oh. they're more than just rocks! This one is really part of a beautiful ring/necklace/etc, but you just can't see it yet.
2. Tell/act out for children story of a gem collector (explain "gem" to children then "gem-collector"). out on the rocky desert hunting certain rocks/stones. The driver of the special desert jeep can't understand what he's looking for--all the rocks look pretty much the same to him. and pretty ugly, at that. But the gem-collector knows just what he's looking for. The whole desert floor is covered with sand and all sizes and shapes of rocks, but the gem collector walks among all these and picks up one here, one there; no, not this one; yes, that one; etc. When he gets back into the jeep to move to another spot farther on in the desert, the driver looks at the stones the gem-collector has picked up and can't figure out why the man chose those particular stones-they are all dusty and ugly to him. The gem collector even treats them "special," putting them into a velvet-lined box and setting them carefully down on the jeeps floor. When the jeep leans sideways on a sharp turn, the gem-collector grabs the box and holds it tightly, to keep the stones he has chosen safe. When they get back into town the driver asks the gem-collector what he is going to do with "all those old rocks" he has picked up off the desert floor. The gem-collector answers that these are special rocks to him, that he has picked them out especially, out from among all the other rocks out there, for a special purpose. "They may look ugly now, but wait until I get through with them--I'm going to make something wonderful out of them!" And you know what the gem-collector is able to make out of those rocks?
3. Show the polished stone (s)/ crystal/ piece of jewelry with gem stone.) This is what the gem-collectors able to make those rocks turn out like!
4. Apply the story to God's choosing people: God saw all the people who would ever be born--long, long ago He did this, before the creation of the Earth-- and He looked over them all and He said to Himself, "I'll take this one. and this one, and this one, etc., God is able to do this--to see all the people who will ever live--and He did do so, and that was when He picked--guess who? YOU!
5. Dramatize God's selecting of each one of them by moving around among them and taking each one by the shoulder/arm as you say, "...and this one..." Do you realize that God Himself chose you?" He chose you all that long time ago: He said, "I want this one!"
6. Refer to 1 Thes. 1:4: It says so in the Bible-- "Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, His choice of you." We can put our name in here: "Knowing,_________________(put child's name here) beloved of God, His choice of you!" Listen to that!--this verse says that we are "beloved of God" He loved us and He chose us just like the gem-collector. God saw us and chose us to make something special out of us!