The Prodigal Son

Hi everyone and welcome back to Christchurch kids. Today we are looking at a very well known parable that Jesus told called The Prodigal Son. I have heard this parable lots of times but only recently I realised I didn't know what 'Prodigal' meant. I looked it up in the dictionary and it means 'someone who spends large amounts of money, time, energy etc, particularly in a way which is not very wise.'

Let's listen to the parable and find out about the son who wasn't very wise.

There are so many parts of this story. 

There is the prodigal son who thought he knew better than anyone else and made some very unwise choices with how he spent his money and his time. Eventually, he realises he needs to come home and say sorry.

There is the father, who is patiently looking out for his son and is overwhelmingly excited when his son comes home.

There is the older brother, who feels a bit grumpy that his little brother is getting lots of attention!

Parables tell us more about God and about us. What does this story tell us?

The prodigal son is someone who chooses not to follow God but then realises that they want to come to God and say sorry. What does God think about that? God is like the father in the parable. He is looking out for people to come to him. When people pray to Him and say sorry, He is so excited that he wants to throw a huge party and give them lots of presents! The big brother feels like he has been trying his best all along and is jealous that his little brother made mistakes and gets a party when he says sorry. Do you think the big brother had never made mistakes? Do you think the big brother should forgive his little brother too? Maybe we can all be like the big brother sometimes. What do you think?

The prodigal son goes on a big journey. He leaves his home and travels to another place (maybe a big city) where he spends all his money. He leaves that place and ends up working on a farm with the pigs before he realises he wants to go home. We can make a board game about going on a journey. You could base it on the parable of the Prodigal Son. You can add instructions to the squares as you go round. Find a dice (or two), write some rules and find some playing pieces. Get playing!

The father in the parable shows us God's amazing love and forgiveness. What does God's love look like? It's better than even our best tries at loving each other. The Bible describes what God's love is like in 1 Corinthians 13. It's our colouring page today and you can download it here

There's a great Chat Mat about the Prodigal Son that can be downloaded, coloured and chatted about with your family. You can download it here.

Prayer

We are going to be using some kitchen foil to help us pray today. 

From Flame:creative

Take a piece of kitchen foil (not too big)

Hold your foil shiny side up and thank God for all the good things you have in your life.

Gently scrunch the foil up (not too tight as we are smoothing it out again). Think about the times when we have got things wrong and say sorry to God.

Smooth out your foil again. Thank God that he forgives us and loves us so much.

Scrunch up your foil into a shape that reminds you of someone or something to want to pray for. Maybe it could be a letter to remind you of someone's name.

Our Prayer Wall

We have a  brand new Prayer Wall at Christchurch. Have you seen it? You can find out all about it here.

Our song today reminds us that God is bigger than big! He made the sky, the oceans and the trees and His love is bigger than it all. Can you remember the actions?

Thanks for joining in today. We would love to see your board games and foil prayers. You can send us pictures using the instructions in the right hand column. We hope you have a great week and pop back for a dance on Wiggle Wednesday.