A Thousand Words about Jesus

The Children’s Ministry curriculum we are using at my church is called, The Story of Grace. It is an in-house made curriculum that covers main stories in the Bible in sequential order ranging from Genesis to Revelation. For my collage I chose to focus on the subject area of the Unit on Jesus, which is a part of The Story of Grace curriculum that we are currently in. This unit is 11 weeks long and focuses on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I chose several images that go along with the main text of each week. Two images I chose were a dove and some water. I chose these images to remind the kids about the first week in this Unit where we talked about Jesus being baptized. The water can also be a reminder of the miracle when Jesus walks on water. I chose the image of the lamb to remind the kids about the weeks where we talked about Jesus beginning His ministry and calling His disciples. He called Himself, “The good Shepherd” and often referred to his followers as His sheep that know His voice. Jesus often spoke in parables, so I chose the picture of the plant growing up out of the rocky soil to remind the kids about this parable from Matthew 13 where Jesus talks about what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it and he indeed bears fruit. The plant also hints at the new life that we are given when we receive Christ. There is an image of the Bible, which is where we learn about who Jesus is in the first place. Through God’s Word (The Bible), He promises His Holy Spirit. There is an image of the cross to emphasize that Jesus came to be crucified on a cross for us! He came to pay the penalty for our sin and to make us right with God so that we can be with Him for all eternity. Finally, there is an image of an eye. If you look closely you can see that there is a small picture of part of the world inside of the eye. Before Jesus ascended back to Heaven, he left His disciples with the great commission to, 

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19). 

This collage will enhance my teaching in my Five6 classroom (5th and 6th graders at my Church). I will be able to show this image at the beginning of my lesson and ask the kids what they recognize that we have talked about so far. There are also images that go along with weeks in the Unit that we have not talked about yet. I will be able to use this collage in the future as we discuss the new topics about the Jesus Unit. I think I will use the collage image for the remainder of my lessons in this Unit, as a review and introduction to the next topic. I don’t plan on telling the kids exactly why I chose the images I did at first. I want to ask them what the image had/has to do with the topics that we are covering in the Unit. It will be a good opportunity for them to reflect back, and think about why each image was chosen.