Welcome
Thank you for joining us on this Come and See for Families adventure. Throughout Lent we’ll be exploring together the big theme of God’s love: how we can experience God’s love for ourselves and how we can grow in sharing God’s love with others.
This week we begin with 1 John 4:19:
“We love because God first loved us."
International Children’s Bible
God is love. God created in love. We are made by God in the image of God. God is love and God loves. We love because God loves us.
Chat together
Try this as you travel to or from school, or as you eat together at tea-time.
I wonder what sort of things you love?
I love running. And guinea pigs. And rain. And sunshine. And crisps – I really love eating crisps. And reading books, especially ones like Calvin and Hobbes. And I love my garden. And pottering around doing things in my garden. And, when the weather is nice, sitting in my garden drinking tea. And the seaside. And walking up mountains. And music, especially classical. And sewing. And running, did I mention that?
Take turns to tell the story of something you love doing.
How did you find out you loved it?
How many minutes or hours a day or week do you think you spend doing the thing you love?
On a scale of one to a million, how much do you love this thing? (0 being “No, not at all” and a million being “So much I could actually pop with excitement”).
Take time to share and enjoy each other’s stories.
Talk together about people who love you and whom you love.
How do you know they love you?
How do you show love to others?
Where do you think love comes from?
Activity
Write, draw, photograph, video these stories so you have a family record of them.
Story
Do you have a favourite story or bit of the Bible that helps you know God’s love? Read it together and chat about how it helps you know God’s love. If you can’t think of one have a look at one of these:
- Luke 15:3–7: The Lost Sheep. The text below is from the Children’s International Bible (or you could read it from a storybook).
- For pre-school children: “The Lost Sheep” in Stories Jesus Told by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen.
- Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney.
Luke 15:3–7
Then Jesus told them this story: “Suppose one of you has 100 sheep, but he loses one of them. Then he will leave the other 99 sheep alone and go out and look for the lost sheep. The man will keep on searching for the lost sheep until he finds it. And when he finds it, the man is very happy. He puts it on his shoulders and goes home. He calls to his friends and neighbours and says, ‘Be happy with me because I found my lost sheep!’ In the same way, I tell you there is much joy in heaven when one sinner changes his heart. There is more joy for that one sinner than there is for 99 good people who don’t need to change.”
Space Makers practice: Stilling
Stilling is a way to enter a spiritual and emotional space where we intentionally make room to come close to God and ask God to come close to us.
Life is very full. Busy. Bustling. We can recognise the need to slow and still ourselves, but it can be difficult, especially when our minds decide this is the moment to fill with busy thoughts, worries, memories, questions and all sorts of other stuff. Let’s acknowledge this as perfectly normal for both adults and children. Being still takes practice.
Shake a snow globe/glitter globe/muddy bottle and watch the contents settle. Pay attention to the clearing and settling. You can make a muddy bottle by filling a bottle or jar with water and adding a tablespoon or two of mud (sandy compost is best). If you’d rather not use mud, wax crayon shavings are a colourful alternative.
Have a toy or object to hold or fiddle with (not an electronic device).
Say words that Jesus said as you breathe in. Repeat them slowly three times to help you slow your breath.
The script for the stilling below enables adults or children to lead. It might help for an adult to lead it first to set the slow pace but if you’ve a child who has experienced this at school they could lead it if they feel confident.
Stilling script
Sit or lie down. Get comfy. Close your eyes if it helps. Take some deep breaths and continue to breathe deeply in through your nose (as if you are smelling a lovely flower) counting slowly 1…2…3… and breathe out slowly through your mouth (as if you are gently blowing out a candle) also counting 1..2…3….
Say:
As you breathe in say, “I love God, God loves me.”
Breathe out slowly and pause.
Breathe in saying, “I love God, God loves me.”
Breathe out slowly and pause.
Breathe in saying, “I love God, God loves me.”
Breathe out slowly and pause.
[Repeat as many times as feels OK.]Gently come back to the room. Open your eyes, smile, stretch, giggle, thank each other for enabling the space.
Pray together
Dear God,
I love you, you love me,
That’s the way it should be.
You love me, I love you,
Help me love others too.
Amen
Verses from Psalm 136
Read the verses below. Then invite each person to say something they are thankful to God for. After each person has spoken, everyone can say together, “His love continues forever”.
Give thanks to the Lord because he is good.
His love continues forever.
With his wisdom he made the skies.
His love continues forever.
He spread out the earth on the seas.
His love continues forever.
He made the sun and the moon.
His love continues forever.
Weekly film and questions
Watch this film, pausing when prompted to think and talk about the questions.
Watch the film | Audio-only version | Download the transcript
Now wonder together
- Imagine the story took place here and now. Where would it have happened? Who would Jesus be speaking to?
- What do you think Jesus’ words and actions on the cross were?