We started a series of four messages tonight that focus on Scriptures from the book of Ephesians. The messages progress from being someone in need of restoration to becoming a child of God to realizing the power that you have in Christ and finally focusing on how we are to live lives of sacrifice for others.
We started off tonight by reading Ephesians 2:1-10. Our message was, no matter how messed up your life is, God offers healing and restoration. He created you and is willing and able to restore you.
While rocking in a borrowed wooden rocking chair (thank you Lynn Helsel), we read the kids the Rocking Chair Story. If you've never read this story, we encourage you to do so. It's a very powerful visual of God's love for us and desire to restore us. We are God's workmanship. We are created by God, and yet life and our own messed up choices have hurt us to the point where we barely look recognizable. Through Jesus and the cross, God offers us reconciliation and He lovingly takes His original creation and restores us to who we were created to be.
As we talked about the Rocking Chair Story and how we can compare it to what God can do/has done in our own lives, we gave the kids each a glass and an old penny. We put some vinegar in their glasses then, along with a teaspoon of salt and a few paper towels. We told the kids to drop their pennies in the solution and start swishing the glass around while we continued to talk. Within a few minutes, the kids were able to take their now shiny and restored pennies out of the solution. We asked them why they think it's easier for God to change us than to do it on our own. What happens when we continue to sin and get our lives dirty again? Is there any person too dirty for God to make clean again?
We watched a movie clip from Wreck-It Ralph then. It's the clip where Ralph is at a Bad-Anon meeting where he confesses to his fellow bad guys that he's tired of being the bad guy and wants to be the good guy for a change. We talked about what it means to be a "good guy" and a "bad guy". Why did Ralph want to be a good guy so much? Do you think the "bad guys" club was helpful for Ralph or not? Why? Have you ever felt like Ralph? Have you ever wanted to be something different, but couldn't for whatever reason? Is it possible for people to change? How do you know?
We had a really great discussion with the kids tonight and pray that they now grasp what it means to truly be restored, who the great Restorer is, and the role they play in their own restoration process.
