Today we want to talk to our kids about how Jesus took our sin upon Himself so that we could be forgiven. Leviticus 4:27-31 explains the process of sacrificing an animal as a Sin Offering. This can be a bit much for little ones to understand when reading it straight out of the Bible, so I summed it up and told Courtney in my own words. Then we used this illustration:
The Sin Chain
This activity works well for the older ones- preschoolers and up. You will need:
1 sheet of paper
stapler or tape
something to write with
stuffed animal
chair
First, ask your kiddo to tell you some ways people disobey God- some sins. Courtney said things like "killing good guys" and "throwing fits". I added a few in there to make sure we had plenty of sins to make a chain. Then, we cut the paper into strips, with one sin on each strip, and made a chain by circling them around each other and stapling them in place:
I explained that we all have sinned (Romans 3:23), and placed the chain on Courtney's neck. We took turns walking with the chain on our neck, saying "Oh no! I sinned! Now I have this heavy chain of sin weighing me down! How can I get free and get back to GOD?!?" Naturally, it was a big production, as everything is with a 4 yr old princess:) **(Don't I look sad carrying all my sin?? Courtney wouldn't let me take her pic with the Sin Chain, but that was okay by me because she had pancakes on her face and glue in her hair anyway, haha!)
Next, I explained to Courtney that a long time ago, before Jesus came, the people had to put a very special animal on what was called The Altar of the Lord. They would place their hand on the animal's head, and then kill the animal. When they did this, all of their sin would be transferred to the animal, and the animal would die so the people wouldn't have to- again, reiterating that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). We set up a chair to use as the altar, then put an animal on it- she chose her monkey. We placed the Sin Chain on the monkey, put our hand on its head and moved our sin from ourselves to the monkey. Of course, she loved pretending to kill the monkey and kill her sin along with it. Then we celebrated because she was free from her sin.
I then explained that this wasn't enough, because guess what??? It's next week and I have sinned again!! We went back and forth several times, saying "Oh! I sinned again! I have to go make another sacrifice!" each time putting the Sin Chain back on our shoulders.
This was a great place to start talking about Jesus!
Next, read (or summarize) Hebrews 9:13-15 and Isaiah 53:4-6. The blood of the goat (this is where they get the term "scapegoat", or so I'm told) wasn't enough. It worked for a little while, but God knew He needed to find another way- so He sent Jesus. Jesus took the place of that animal- and since He is God's Son, then His sacrifice meant more than any animal's sacrifice ever could. The animal sacrifice took away a person's sins, but couldn't help with any he committed in the future. He'd have to keep going back to make more sacrifices... but Jesus died to forgive our sins once and for all (Hebrews 10:10). This means that once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord & Savior, you are completely forgiven for everything you're doing, all that you've done, and all that you will do in the future. Note that it's still important to ask forgiveness, because this keeps our relationship with God free & clear of hindrances- much like our relationships with one another.
We ended here and started our day, but I have been intentional about keeping our conversation open. When she did something wrong at the library, she prayed and asked God to forgive her. Then we talked again about our sin going to Jesus and His taking our punishment of death so we could live. I encourage you to keep the conversation going, and if you don't know the answer to a question, find someone who does- look in the Bible, do a Bible search on Google, or whatever you need to do.
Toddler Activity:
Color the picture below.If you have an older toddler, let them glue cotton balls to the sheep to make it fluffy! This is a reminder that Jesus is called "The Lamb of God" and that He has taken our sins upon Himself so we can be forgiven. (To print, right click the image and click "Print Target"- if that doesn't work, right click the image and then select "Save As." Save it to your desktop and print from there.)
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