God Chooses His People

A full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!" (Ruth 4:12)

Oh, how I loved this lesson about God choosing Ruth and making her a part of His family. We opened with the same game as last week to review the Ten Commandments, only adding the incentive of getting to place a marker on a "Four in a Row" board each time a child correctly matched a Commandment to its corresponding picture and number. The Pink Team (SarahClaire and Mrs. Rabe) ended up winning, but the Green Team (Patrick and Nicholas) came in a very close second. We celebrated by doing the "Ten Commandment" hand motions in a very exaggerated fashion. We try to obey these rules because God tells us to, and God only asks of us what is best for us. When we try to obey, that pleases God, gives Him glory and makes us happy.

Every week before we start our Bible time, I remind the children that everything in the Bible is true and that our Bible story time is the most important thing that we do when we are together, because reading the Bible is the way that God talks to us. I do this little fingerplay with them:

This is my Bible, (Hold hands, palms together like a closed book)
I open it up (Open hands like a book)
It tells me what I should do (Run fingers along as though reading)
I know that God loves me (Hug self)
He hears when I pray (hold hand to ear, then praying hands)
And all of His words are true. (Nod head)

This is my Bible (Hold hands like book)
The Word of our God (Pull hand down, palm open, from heaven)
It tells of the wonders He's done (Put hands in air like high fives)
His stories all point us (Point up)
To Jesus, Our Lord (Point to palm with middle finger, repeat on both hands)
Our Savior and God's perfect Son (Hold hand in C-shape and make cross)


This is my Bible (Hold hands like open book)
It's special to me (put both hands over heart)
Like a friend I see every day (point to eye)
So now I'll be quiet (put finger to lips)
My hands will be still (fold hands in lap)
I'll listen to what God wants to say. (Nod head)

To introduce our story, I asked Nicholas to please go and bring over a basket that I had set on a table, far from our storytime rug. Nicholas happily did this. I told the children that Nicholas gone far away to bring something to us. And then I told them that in our Bible story, God sends a lady far away -- to bring God something He wanted very much -- actually, not something, but someone.

The main teaching point for this lesson was that God sovereignly chooses His people, just as He chose Ruth. He sought her in a foreign land among a people who did not love Him. He made her a part of His family and through her came the most precious baby in the world, Jesus, our Messiah.

After the story, I showed the children a plant, then held up a branch from a different variety of plant. I explained how a gardener can cut the stem a certain way, and tie or tape it very tightly to the plant, and eventually the branch will attach itself to that plant, and live as a part of the organism. And I said that THAT is what God did with Ruth. He made her a part of His family, as surely as that new branch becomes a part of the tree.

For fun and to help the children understand the poetic language of the Bible, we played a game where the children took turns taking refuge under God's wings. (I explained that God didn't really have wings, but that this was a word-picture. Mama birds protect their babies by spreading their wings over them. That is a picture of just how safe God's people are in His protective care.) One child would hide under an umbrella (which was supposed to be the wing) while the others squeezed styrofoam "poppers" that bounced off of the umbrella and made a little "pop" noise. As long as the children were under the "wing", no harm could come to them.

We stopped this game after everyone had had a turn behind the umbrella, but it was with much regret -- so I think I'll use this one again!