For 4 years our Kid’s Ministry has been writing a mid-week curriculum that has a month-long focus on “Eternity”. And every year we address the topic of heaven & hell with the kids. We just finished our last lesson on Eternity in this 4-year journey, so this comes a little late…but I greatly desire your input on this one to keep growing and learning.
Here’s my question, which is a little vague on purpose, but feel free to address any aspect of heaven you’d like:
- What are some great tips/analogies/object lessons/Scripture!/discussion pieces that you have used (or read in a book or ripped off from somebody else…I don’t care) to talk to kids about heaven? (assuming they helped)
Let’s hear them folks! Bring them on! Please share your God-given wisdom on how to talk to kids about heaven so we can be a light to them!
Not to be obtuse, but I guess I’m wondering why the emphasis on Heaven. Scripture has much more to say about resurrection than “going to heaven”. I’m finding quite a bit of kids curriculum completely misses the “new heaven and new earth”, new creation, resurrection aspect of eternity. Thoughts?
Great question! In our yearly curriculum, we only have 3 weeks to hit the topic of Eternity real hard. In that time, we try to be intentional about teaching about what eternity means, Heaven & Hell (including the new heaven and new earth aspect), how eternity starts now, storing up treasures, etc. But I guess my question goes along with the shortage of info that you speak of in curriculum. So what is it exactly that you are teaching? What are you using? Since the curriculum has short-comings, what are you pumping into it? And as far as resurrection goes, we weave that into multiple other months. We cover one “topic” per month, but infuse the power of resurrection into 4 of our 7 curriculum months.
Talking to kids about heaven doesn’t really hit home till they understand death – i mean really understand it. With our current devaluation of life – ie abortion, current events, PETA, etc – relating heaven is just the next stop on the great circle of life…which doesn’t mean much. We try to sugar coat death (and maybe rightly so) because we think they will be traumatized by it… so we join the rest of society by saying the dog is in heaven, grandma is in heaven, the bugs are in heaven – (even if we know they aren’t)so how is heaven any different then life here? Hard for them to make the connection.
To relate heaven to them – I like to have them describe their very best day/moment in life or how they feel when their parents finally come home or a relative visits that they never get to see – Heaven is the best family reunion there is.
As for relating eternity – I like the visual of smashing an egg in front of them and asking them to put it back together – you can never restore the egg – you can’t put it back together – it’s gone forever – but God, through Jesus puts the egg (us) together and we can not be smashed.
Hi Ryan,
I feel that children can understand alot more than we give them credit for. I have been storying the bible from creation to christ with my Spanish students this year and I was amazed at what they learned and how they can now share God’s story to others they were 3rd and 5th graders. So I am a huge advocate of storying….
Also, my daughter Isabella gave her life to Jesus a few months ago… and I shared a story about the Lamb’s book of life that really spoke to her. The Lord used it to convict her and draw her to Himself.
Echo the Story is a cool ministry that uses storying with Kids and young adults.
They Love it….
So, in regards to heaven and hell I would share it the same way I share with adults….
What a great opportunity you have to minister to kids…raising up kingdom laborers.
Blessings,
Beth
Well, I think that there is some good stuff in the responses. I don’t teach any classes to four year olds, but I have a three year old, so I will just talk about my experience. I’m also coming from a significantly different background from yours, so I might sound a little off.
Like Tom mentioned, we don’t sugarcoat death. My daughter is well aware of death, and every once in awhile she’ll tear up at the thought. She has learned to deal with it; she just doesn’t want to “bleed” when she dies. She’s also well aware that Jesus was resurrected, and that one day she’ll be resurrected.
I try not to talk about heaven being what happens after death just because I feel our culture (and the Church) feeds us so many misconceptions. If we talk about heaven, it’s usually more a discussion about heaven on earth. I say that “When we die, we go to be with Jesus, and then one day he’ll resurrected us.” I try not to go into too much detail, like “Is being with Jesus a state of consciousness?”
I think at this age, they absorb so much, and they’re okay with paradox. I try not to be too clever with my analogies because 1) if we try to be too clever, we often end up spouting off heresy 2) kids don’t worry about contradictions. They don’t see any problem with the Trinity being both three and one.
I’d also have to agree with Beth. The best we can talk is through story. I think there are some pretty good stories/analogies…marriage feast of the lamb, for one. It’s hard to understand eternity without understanding non-eternity…which is hard for a littlun. It’s hard for me.