Second Sunday of Easter Church School Lesson for Home

Hi Families!

I hope you all had a happy and blessed Easter! I also hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!

I wanted to send out our church school lesson for the second Sunday of Easter. It would be so much better if we could be doing this lesson together, but now you will have the opportunity to share the lesson with the whole family!

Scripture for this week: John 20:19-31

Background on our Easter series:

Easter is another huge gift from God, building on not only the Christmas gift of the birth of Jesus, but also on the gifts that keep coming right here and now. The Gospel reading today follows the discovery of the resurrected Jesus by the women at the tomb. Although several disciples raced to the tomb to see for themselves, they returned to the upper room reasonably sure that they would be the next to be killed. In that room Jesus appears to them, bringing peace and, after all he has been through, continuing to teach the message of peace and forgiveness.

Supplies needed for the lesson:

-paper

-markers

-bubbles(optional)

Opening Prayer: (Use your own words, or these.) Generous and Loving God, we thank you, for the gifts you continue to give us. Be with us as we explore your peace for each of us. Amen.

After you have read the scripture together, you can get out your paper and markers for the activity.

Step one:

Trace your child's hand, or you can trace each other's hands if you want to make one too!

Step two: Once your hands have been traced, make them into a representation of you. If your hands could identify you to someone else, what would they look like? You can draw, write, try to make them look as real as possible, be creative. What story do our hands tell about us? Are they large or small? Soft or rough?

As you complete this project, you may want to talk about why we're making hands. In the scripture, Jesus uses his hands to identify himself to his disciples. As a servant to others and a healer, Jesus' hands were very important to him. They became even more symbolic once his hands were nailed to the cross. He asks Thomas to put his hands in His own to help him believe. As you decorate your hands, think about what things you do with your hands each day. To take the lesson even deeper, you can talk about how you can use your hands to do the work of God.

Here are the hands that Addie and I decorated. Addie has her nails painted all different colors, so she wanted to draw her hands to show that. And all the different colors also reflect her love for arts and crafts. I decided to use words for my hand to describe things that I do each day.

Second Activity:

First take a big breath and hold it as long as they can. Then slowly exhale the air. Do this a couple of times. Then, imagine, as you take in breath, you are breathing in the peace that Jesus gives us. Then as you breathe out, you are sharing that peace with each other. Do this a few more times.

Optional Portion(if you were able to find bubbles.) Take the bubbles outside and as you blow, imagine that you are blowing out peace bubbles to share with each other! See how far they go!

PEACE BE WITH YOU!!

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I hope you had fun making your hands! Here's a closing prayer to end the lesson:

(Use this prayer, or your own.) Thank you, God, for sending Jesus to show us the way. Thank you for the peace Jesus brings and that we can share that peace with each other. Amen.

Just a note:

Make sure to check the website and facebook page for all updated messages and videos from Father Keith and the Family Ministry.