Little people and the Big Word

Helping under 5s connect with God through His word.

The Life Changing Word

God’s word changes young lives.

One Easter we taught some toddlers about how Jesus swapped everything at the cross. One person arrived with a naughty sign around their neck. When they came to the cross Jesus swapped their naughtiness for his goodness. For another person, Jesus swapped their sadness at the cross. For a third person, Jesus swapped their sickness. This simple teaching allowed children to deeply grasp the exchange that took place on the cross for them.

We then invited all the children to come and swap bad things for his good things at the cross of Jesus, giving them sad faces on pieces of paper that they could swap with a happy face.

One four-year-old, who was there had regressed to wearing nappies for school. The parents were understandably distraught by this. The Monday after this teaching her mother said, “Quickly put your nappy on. It’s time to go to school.” The girl replied, “No, mummy. Jesus swapped my nappy at the cross.” From that day on she no longer needed to wear nappies.

A whole month later a two-year-old boy was being told off by his mummy. The boy accepted the reprimand and looked at his mum thoughtfully, through his big brown eyes. “Mummy, Jesus swapped my naughtiness at the cross.” That young boy had clearly received the revelation of what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

Even the youngest of children can respond to the word of God. When John the Baptist was in Elizabeth’s womb, Luke 1 tells us of his first encounter with Jesus. Mary, Jesus’ mother, comes to visit Elizabeth and John leaps in the womb in such a way that Elizabeth receives the revelation that Mary is the mother of the Lord. So, John the Baptist in his third trimester in the womb could respond to the Word of God made flesh, as a first trimester baby in the womb. Young children readily respond to God as he is revealed through his word.

The Call of God

God knew Jeremiah before he was even born (Jeremiah 15:5). This knowledge was not some distant recognition, but rather the intimate knowledge of a creator who was knitting Jeremiah together in the womb. God’s knowledge of Jeremiah meant that he could set Jeremiah apart to be a prophet before Jeremiah could even breathe, let alone talk.

Many times in Scripture God announces the birth of a baby to the parents, knowing what their future calling will be. When God needed a prophet, he sent Jeremiah as a baby. When God needed a successor to fulfil his covenant to Abraham he sent Isaac as a baby. When God needed a judge to judge the nation he sent Samson as a baby. When God needed a judge, who could prepare for the time of the kings, he sent Samuel as a baby. When God needed someone to prepare the way for the Messiah he sent John the Baptist as a baby. And when God himself chose to come to earth in human form he did not come as a fully-grown adult, but he chose to come as a baby.

God records the events before the birth of each of these people. Then the account in Scripture fast forwards to the time when they begin to fulfil their call. As God records their birth he also speaks about the call that he has on each individual’s life.

We have seen God’s call on our own children from when they were very young. When my wife was pregnant with our second son, many people felt God saying he would have a pastoral gifting. When he was born he would frequently reach out to those who were most hurting in the church. When he was only a few months old he would discern if someone had had a bad week, often before we did. His response was to reach out and give them a deep healing cuddle.

One six-month-old in the creche was fascinated by the Bible. When it came time to share the Bible story, he would frequently cry if his bouncer was not placed right next to the person telling the story. This was such a clear pattern that we experimented with reading secular books. We discovered he didn’t care where he was sat, unless it was the Bible story.

In the same way another girl was nick-named our praise and worship leader. She would bop in her bouncer every time we sang songs to God. If we sang nursery rhymes she would sit there smiling, but when their praise began her bouncing would start too and her smile would turn into an open-mouthed toothless gape.

God knows the calling on each of the children under our care. He knows what he has planned for them in the future. He also knows what environment they need to be in to prepare for that future. By announcing their destiny in advance, he allows families to partner with him and to help to shape their destiny.

Two of the greatest leaders in the Bible grew up in less than perfect homes. Moses was raised in an environment which was against the people of God and filled with intellectual superiority. As the adopted grandson of Pharoah he could have had anything he wanted. Instead, he chose to associate himself with a bunch of slaves.

The only positive influence on his life that we read about in the Bible is from his mother. She was a woman of faith who, having put him in the river, expected to never see him again. Instead she not only received him back but was paid by Pharaoh’s daughter to nurse her own son, until he was weaned (around the age of three or four).

In the same way Samuel was raised in the temple. Whilst this sounds ideal, we know that Eli was not a great father – he was unable to control his own children. He lacked discernment, accusing Hannah of being drunk instead of realising she was desperate. At the same time Samuel had as older role models Eli’s older children. These were not the kind of people you would want your young children to spend time with. Yet God preserved Samuel in that place.

When we work with the youngest of children we can have the great impact on their future lives, no matter what family situation they come from. Moses and Samuel both grew up in less than perfect places, yet both had godly mothers who nurtured them in the first few years of their lives in preparation for their future destiny. Our work with the youngest members of the church we can help them to connect with the living God through his word. Each connection is a potentially life-changing opportunity. So how can we help them to connect with God through his word?

Practical tips for sharing the word

1.     Use the same story for a month.

Young children love repetition. If every week for a whole month you teach the same story, the young children will love knowing what is going to happen next. By the end of the month the children will be ready to tell you the story.

I’m not saying you should tell the story in the same way (see the next point on being creative), or even teach the same point each week. If telling the story of the prodigal son, one week you might want to focus on how we do things wrong, another week on how God loves us, the following week you could teach how we should love God and finally you could use the same story to show how God is ready to forgive us.

2.     Be creative in your story telling methods.

Young children are able to digest all kinds of food if it is served in the right format. Take a roast dinner which may cause a seven-month-old to choke, whizz it around a liquidizer and hey presto they suddenly have no problem consuming the goodness. In the same way when we break down meaty parts of God’s word into bite-sized chunks our children can digest it.

Creative ways may include using puppets, getting the children to respond every time you say a word, taking them on a journey around the room to discover the next part of the story or using actions. This may sound straight forward, but with the teams I work with we spend longer discussing theology in depth when preparing a lesson for the under 5s than for any other age group. When you are simplifying a message you have to make sure it is still true to the original message without diluting or distorting the original. It’s a lot harder to say something right in 10 words than to use 1000.

3.     Have a time to respond to the story.

Jesus warns us that we need to not only hear God’s word, but act on it. After you have told the story, build in a chance for the children to respond to what they have heard. This might be where they say sorry for things they have done wrong. It may be a chance to worship God because of how amazing we have discovered he is. Or it may be that the children pray for a group of people who need to know the truth that you have taught. Whatever way you do it, be creative in allowing opportunities for the children to respond to God’s word.

4.     Reinforce the message with an activity.

As the children colour in a picture or attempt some other craft linked with the teaching, this is a great time to chat with the children and go over the message for the week again. For example, it might look something like this: “Well done, you’ve coloured that picture of Jonah beautifully. Why do you think God sent the big fish to Jonah?” He didn’t want Jonah to drown. “Do you think God will help us too, even if we do things wrong?”

5.     Teach a memory verse.

While this may seem ambitious for a class of under ones, the Psalmist speaks of the value of memorizing scripture “I have hidden your word in your heart that I may not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11. There are many great songs that you can use which make scripture memorization easy. All this is giving the children a great foundation for the future.

6.     Bless the children.

One day as I was reading the Bible I had a major revelation: When Jesus blessed the children, they were blessed. Okay, this may not be earth shattering in its content, but what I mean is this. If Jesus were to walk into your church, point at two of the members and declare: “you are blessed,” we would expect those two members lives to be changed from that moment on. The blessing Jesus gave was not a magic spell, or empty words, it was the word of God spoken with the authority to bring change. From that moment on we took time to bless the children in our creche each week, praying a simple short prayer over each of them and expecting that it would affect their future.

God’s word is so powerful that our children deserve to be exposed to it from when they are young. After all God knows the children in our groups, he knows their calling and he is longing for them to connect with him in spirit and in truth.

Olly Goldenberg is the director of Children Can. Through this ministry they seek to revive the next generation and connect generations together around the world. He is author of many books, including The Josiah Generation and Jesus, Your Baby and You. He has also released two music albums, including I love Jesus and produced Early Steps with Jesus a six-part training course for crèche leaders.