How Sin Separates Us from God (for preschoolers!): Advent Week 1

The first week of advent here is The Problem and the Promise week.  Today we focused on the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden--how sin separates us from God.  I struggled with how to bring this down to a level a two year old and four year old would get and finally came up with an object lesson.

To start, we pulled our first note of our matchbox advent calender and it directed us to read about Adam and Eve and do an activity about sin.  We read the story of the fall from The Jesus Story Book Bible * and the NIrV combined.  I love that this book emphasizes that God promised Adam and Eve a seed who would crush the serpent--in totally preschooler-friendly terms--which is rarely mentioned in story book versions.

After reading, we started our object lesson.  First, I held their hands and we sang and danced in a circle around the coffee table.  I commented on how much I enjoyed holding their hands and how fun it was to be close together.  Then we went into the kitchen and I pulled out a bowl I'd prepped the night before.

I wanted something to represent sin--something that looked yummy and tempting, but was actually nasty and icky.  I mixed flour, oil, a lot of cocoa and a little vinegar to make something that looked like cake batter, but was yucky and bitter.

Because it looked like cake batter, they immediately wanted to sample it, so I let them.  Yuck!  I explained that this is like sin--it looks like it will be good, but it's yucky and nasty.

Then I asked if they thought I'd like to hold their hands and sing and dance around the coffee table right now. Big Brother was quick to shake his and emphatically say no.  I asked if they thought I still loved them, even though I didn't want to hold their hands right now.   Both were confident that I did still love them.  I explained that's how it is with God when we sin.  Because we have icky sin it separates us from God--Adam and Eve couldn't be as close to Him as they had been because of their sin and it is the same for us because we sin.  I emphasized that God still loves us, but just like I didn't want to hold their hands when they were sticky, sin creates a separation between us and God.  Sin makes a big problem.

Once they had their hands sticky, I asked them if they could clean it off on their own.  Sis tried to shake it off making herself even more messy, but Big Brother immediately shook his head no.

I explained that this is also like sin.  Once we have sinned, nothing we can do on our own can get the mess off.  We need help.  God promised He would send some one to help wash our sin away.  I asked who they thought that might be and Big Brother knew:  Jesus!

Then I helped them wash their hands and we finished with a clean-handed round of singing and dancing and a final quiet prayer.

A lot of it went over Sis' head, but she still enjoyed it all and Big Brother really seemed to get it.

*The Jesus Story Book Bible has gorgeous, quirky, engaging illustrations and does an amazing job of conveying how each story from the Old Testament fits into the larger narrative of the salvation story--every story points to Christ; however, the author takes some interpretive liberties that make me slightly uncomfortable at points.  The conversation between Eve and the Serpent is a highly interpretive version that is a big leap from the literal words in Genesis, so I subbed in the actual text from the NIrV here while we were reading.