This month, we’re focusing on salvation history and some of the Big Splash steps God took to prepare His people for the coming of Jesus.  We’re going to start with taking a closer look at the nature of promises.  When you or I make a promise, no matter how good our intentions, sometimes things just get in the way and prevent us from keeping the promise.  It’s good for us to remember that will NEVER happen with God!  No matter how dire the circumstances, He is always in complete control.

God made a very famous promise as part of Noah’s story,  and that leads us to an activity looking at a lot of other promises we can find in the Bible.  To do this, simply color and assemble the treasure chest, cut apart the scripture promises, and place them inside.  Come up with some routine to pull one out randomly and read it together – mealtime or bedtime (or both) might work well.

We’ve included a version of Noah’s story in the lesson, but feel free to substitute it with any storybook or picture Bible version you may have. Younger kids especially may appreciate an illustrated version.  It’s also fun with the littlest ones to gather all the animal toys you have and tell the story to your child who is sitting in a box/laundry basket/ark with this menagerie.  Believe me, it leads to lots of imaginative play in the following days. 🙂

Also, if all your kids are younger you may want to sort through the promises ahead of time and only add the ones you like best to the treasure chest.  There are three pages of them, and it’s not likely your youngest kids will still be interested in the project a couple of months later after you’ve used up all the verses we provide.

If your kids are older and are already familiar with Noah’s story, try challenging them to retell it from memory.  With this age group, it’s quite likely that some of the Promise verses will strike them as particularly meaningful.  When that happens, encourage your kid to keep the verse someplace where they can read it over and over.  (tape it to the bathroom mirror, tuck in into a Bible, copy it onto a larger sheet of paper and decorate it … there are lots of possibilities)

And for everyone, I really, really hope that sometime in your Family Formation career you do the activity on page 4 where your family actually measures out how big the ark was. Scripture gives us pretty specific dimensions, and it’s an impressive visual image.  You’ll need a wide open space, a long tape measure (25+ feet would be best), and some kind of very visible landmark like a parked car or a tree.  Start there and measure 450 feet and you’ll see what I mean.  That was an amazingly big boat!

Right now, in Minnesota, we are in our annual time of sub-zero winter but warmer weather is around the corner, and when it hits your family may be ready for an outdoor activity.  If so, this one is perfect!