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Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have a very special doll or stuffed animal that belongs to you? (let them answer) Almost all of you. What do you call your friend? (let them answer) A lot of people have a friend that looks like this. (hold up your teddy bear, hopefully one that is well worn) I call him Teddy. Do any of you call your bear "Teddy"? (let them answer) A lot of you have Teddy bears. That's wonderful. How many of you sleep with Teddy? (let them answer) Does your friend ever eat with you or watch television with you? (let them answer) A Teddy bear can be a very good friend and a lot of fun to share good times with.

I guess the best part of having a Teddy bear is that the teddy bear belongs to me. No one else owns Teddy. Teddy does what I want him to do, goes where I want him to go, sleeps when I want him to sleep and eats when I want him to eat. That's what I mean when I say that Teddy belongs to me. Since Teddy belongs to me, I can share him with you if I want to. I can even give Teddy away if I want to. Of course, if I gave him away, then he would belong to someone else and that person could do the same things with him that I do with him now.

God the Father loved Jesus even more than I love Teddy or more than you love your friend. Jesus belonged to the Father and the Father belonged to Jesus. They shared life together. The Father and Jesus had a plan about how they were going to share the life of Jesus with all of the people in the world. It was their life and they could do whatever they wanted to with it. Just like you can do whatever you want to with your friend Teddy. God decided to offer the life of Jesus for our sins. It was God's plan to have Jesus die for our sins and use up his life so that we would not die forever. God could do this with Jesus' life because it belonged to him. Now there was more to the plan than just dying. God also decided that after Jesus suffered and died he would give him back his life. God could do that also because even when Jesus was dead he belonged to God. So God gave back to Jesus his life.

The same thing can happen to you and me. If God owns your life like he owned Jesus and you own Teddy, then he can give you back your life after you die. God is so good that he will only do what is best for you. So you can belong to God like Jesus did and just like Teddy belongs to me and your friend belongs to you. That is a super plan and one that all of us should follow.

Remember, God will take even better care of your life, if you give it to him, than you take care of friends like Teddy.