1 John: God is Love
I John 4:16 – We abide in Christ’s love
Scripture reference: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
Objectives:
- Children should know that only in God’s love can we live.
- Children should have a plan to show God’s love to someone this week.
Possible Lesson Plan:
- Open with prayer.
- Bring in a potted plant with roots partly visible and show the children how the tree grows, with the roots nourishing the trunk and then the leaves. Who’s our root?
Make a picture of a tree, no leaves, on a large piece of poster board. Color the trunk and branches brown or black. Cut it into enough puzzle pieces for the members of the class. Hide the pieces around the room. Have the children hunt until each has found one and only one piece. Can you tell from one piece what the picture is? How can we find the whole picture? Put the pieces together to make the tree. Ask how the Church is like a tree? Who is the trunk and root of the tree? Jesus!
How did Jesus show he loved us? Glue a small icon of Jesus on the trunk with a red paper heart under it that says, “God is love”.
Now what’s missing from the tree? Leaves! John in his gospel told us that Jesus said that we live in Him; He is the vine and we are the branches. We cannot live without the roots and trunk that give us life, and we cannot live alone either. What happens if a branch is torn off? It dies and is just a dead stick. So we are all part of Jesus’s church and all united with each other in Jesus’s love. Cut out green leaves and write each student’s name on one. Cut out red hearts and write “love one another” on each one. Glue leaves onto tree, each bearing a red paper heart like an apple hanging from it.
- Sing “A New Commandment”, learned a few weeks ago.
- Discuss some way each child can show love for someone, in his family, at school, etc. this week.
- Close with prayer, praying especially for each child’s special love project.