All The Glue In The World
Pastoral Resources
Gospel-Telling
The Art and Theology of Children's Sermons
Appropriate Day or Season: Earth Day, Spring
Summary: There is evidence of God's creating hand all around us. Let us wonder at and preserve what God has created.
Props: A flower and a very large bottle of glue. My favorite flower is Queen Anne's lace. Very common, it is often considered a weed but is actually a wild carrot. Take time to tell how it got its name; it looks like the lace worn by queens. A beautiful rose or a crocus is also effective.
Begin by asking for two volunteers, one younger and one older. Tell the younger child he has the easier task. Let him tear the flower into little pieces and put them into the cupped hands of the older child. Then turn to the older child and tell her that she has the more difficult task. Ask her to put the flower back together just as it was. After she gets over the shock, ask her if she could put the flower back if you gave her an hour, a whole day, or a month. Ask her if any person in the world could help her restore the flower to its original beauty. Finally, ask her if she could accomplish the task if she had all the glue in the world.
Take the pieces of the flower in your hands. As you are dropping the pieces onto the floor, say something like what follows below.
I wonder why it is that we are able to build spaceships that travel to the moon and back, but we cannot put a little flower back together again, not even with all the glue in the world. Could the reason be that we built the spaceship, but God gave us this flower? And God has not only given us this flower; God has created many, many tokens of his love that we cannot put back after we have destroyed them.*
I would ask that you enjoy the springtime: take walks, listen and look at all of God's beauty that surrounds you. But please don't destroy anything you can't put back together.
Reflection Note: This sermon has other possible endings. For an older group the emphasis could be a demonstration that, at our very best, we as builders and inventors are only imitators of God's creativity. In either case, the sermon is a subtle demonstration of God's existence, but I would avoid making this aspect explicit. Why? Because explicit proofs only challenge the child/youth to argue about God rather than give thanks for the signs of God's creating power.
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*Father Michael Quoist's popular book, Prayers, is dedicated to the theology that "if we knew how to look at life through God's eyes, we would see it as innumerable tokens of the love of the Creator seeking the love of his creatures."
Summary: There is evidence of God's creating hand all around us. Let us wonder at and preserve what God has created.
Props: A flower and a very large bottle of glue. My favorite flower is Queen Anne's lace. Very common, it is often considered a weed but is actually a wild carrot. Take time to tell how it got its name; it looks like the lace worn by queens. A beautiful rose or a crocus is also effective.
Begin by asking for two volunteers, one younger and one older. Tell the younger child he has the easier task. Let him tear the flower into little pieces and put them into the cupped hands of the older child. Then turn to the older child and tell her that she has the more difficult task. Ask her to put the flower back together just as it was. After she gets over the shock, ask her if she could put the flower back if you gave her an hour, a whole day, or a month. Ask her if any person in the world could help her restore the flower to its original beauty. Finally, ask her if she could accomplish the task if she had all the glue in the world.
Take the pieces of the flower in your hands. As you are dropping the pieces onto the floor, say something like what follows below.
I wonder why it is that we are able to build spaceships that travel to the moon and back, but we cannot put a little flower back together again, not even with all the glue in the world. Could the reason be that we built the spaceship, but God gave us this flower? And God has not only given us this flower; God has created many, many tokens of his love that we cannot put back after we have destroyed them.*
I would ask that you enjoy the springtime: take walks, listen and look at all of God's beauty that surrounds you. But please don't destroy anything you can't put back together.
Reflection Note: This sermon has other possible endings. For an older group the emphasis could be a demonstration that, at our very best, we as builders and inventors are only imitators of God's creativity. In either case, the sermon is a subtle demonstration of God's existence, but I would avoid making this aspect explicit. Why? Because explicit proofs only challenge the child/youth to argue about God rather than give thanks for the signs of God's creating power.
____________
*Father Michael Quoist's popular book, Prayers, is dedicated to the theology that "if we knew how to look at life through God's eyes, we would see it as innumerable tokens of the love of the Creator seeking the love of his creatures."
