Acts 12
We started off tonight by showing the kids a few YouTubes of escape artists/illusionists escaping precarious situations. There was the underwater handcuffed in a locked tank escape, the straightjacket escape made famous by the late Houdini, and illusionist Criss Angel's escape from an imploding building.
Then we read Acts 12 and discussed Peter's miraculous escape from prison. Peter wasn't an escape artist or illusionist, but he served a God who can do the seemingly impossible (Matt. 19:26, Mark 10:27, Luke 18:27). I told the kids then that I was still hungry because I hadn't had much dinner and to excuse me while I ate a small snack. I took out a banana. I pretended to have forgotten a knife then and claimed there were none clean in the kitchen. So I prayed for the banana to simply be sliced when I peeled it. To the kids' amazement, the banana was sliced inside the peel, even though the peel had never been removed! Cool trick I learned!
Then we spoke to the kids about the power of prayer and asked them why they should be amazed that we prayed for the banana to be sliced and it was. We prayed for it didn't we? We talked about the awesome God we serve and how capable He is of doing what to us seems impossible. He can heal people of cancer, stop tornadoes just short of a particular house, feed thousands of people with a few fish and loaves of bread, make blind people see and deaf people hear, and even raise people from the dead.
We gave an empty soda can to one of the kids then and asked them to demonstrate their strength by crushing it with only their hands. They did. Now air is invisible, but we wanted to show the kids that it can be just as powerful, if not more, than we can be. We told the kids that air could crush an empty soda can just as well, if not better than they could. To demonstrate this, we did a little science experiment. We boiled a few tablespoons of water on the stovetop until it was so hot, steam was coming out the top of it. Using tongs, we then took the can and inverted it into a bowl of ice water. Instantly, the can "popped" and the air pressure created a vacuum effect that crushed the can....entirely!
We asked the kids then if they can physically see God with their eyes. Of course they cannot, but like the air, that doesn't mean He is weak or not capable of doing the most awesome of things...like crushing a can, moving a mountain, raising someone who's been dead for four days, or breaking someone out of a maximum security prison.
We need to pray. We need to believe. We serve a God with whom ALL things are possible! It doesn't mean He'll always answer our prayers the way we want Him to, but that must never hinder our prayers in faith or keep us from praying in the first place. And that's a lesson we can all use to be reminded of!
Ephesians 3:20-21 - Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
