Here’s a straightforward one! Our Bible times based on the creation story have been a fab excuse to get out and about and chat about the things God made.

Activities can be:

Completely free:

Go outside into your garden or a park or walk down the street and look at some of the things God made. Trees, plants, insects, dogs, birds, ducks, etc. Why not do a bark rubbing, feed the ducks, ask to join a friend when they take their dog for a walk or feed their guinea pig, look under a rock and watch the insects scuttle or even just look at a book with animals in or watch an animal programme on TV.

Very cheap:

You may need to pay for some petrol to get to a garden centre, but they are a great place to look at interesting plants and best of all they often have fascinating aquariums! Many museums are free and just cost you the price of transport and maybe a cake if you feel like a treat!

Proper money:

Visit a zoo, farm or safari park and look at the amazing animals!

 

How do you chat about God in all of this?

For very young children it is enough to just be excited and amazed at the fun and fascinating things you see. Show them that creation is eye-poppingly wonderful!! Encourage them to explore as much as is safe (letting them hold a tickly ant, collect leaves and sticks as you walk through a park, stroke a rabbit). To introduce them to the big ideas of what the Bible teaches just include phrases like “God made the duck”. It’s really helpful to use exact phrases from your Bible time too as this will help them to relate their experience during the day to what you teach them later on.

For older children you can talk about things like where each animal lives and relate that to other elements of the creation story (e.g. fish in water – God made the sea). It’s fun to talk about the things that make animals different from each other – what ones are big, what ones are small, what ones have pointy ears, which animals have funny noses or colourful bottoms. It’s great to point out that God decided what the elephant would look like and to try to work out why he made the elephant as it is.

As well as really getting them to understand that God made all the animals, birds, etc., you can talk about what that tells us about God. “Wow, God is strong”, “God must be very big if he made a giraffe”, “Do you know what? God thinks the ant he made is GREAT!!!”. The picture above shows Dan trying to push a tree over – a great chance to talk not just about how strong a tree is but also how strong the God who made it is.

 

How it works for us:

Dan is just beginning to understand that God made things. We can ask him “who made dogs?” and he will say, “God did”. We include chat about what that tells us about who God is to stretch his thinking and to initiate more conversation.

Mikey is at the stage where he is learning to recognise new animals and is able to ‘sign’ familiar ones. He loves exploring the outdoors and learns mainly through experience rather than being told things. With him we love to share his excitement and talk and sign about how God made all this incredible nature!

Jemima? Well she’s small but she can be tickled with a leaf and ‘smell’ a flower. It doesn’t hurt to tell her the truth that God made the astonishing world that she is soaking up!

Hasn’t God made a fabulous world?!

How could you make your next walk outside an opportunity to talk about God?