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© 2016 Awana® Clubs International
Scripture taken from the New King James Version ®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
NKJV
T&T MISSION: GRACE IN ACTION
RESOURCE BUNDLE ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS
1.5 – GOD IS ETERNAL: LESSON OPENER (5 MINUTES)
A. God will be alive for all of eternity and so will we.
OPTION 1: STACKS FOR ETERNITY
WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Huge pile of a small item (at least
500 pieces) that can be stacked (e.g., pennies, Legos,
pebbles, paper clips, flat crackers, puzzle pieces)
ALTERNATIVE: If you have a large group and are short on
time, you and the kids can mark dots on a whiteboard,
poster, or individual papers to represent each year. You may
also limit the number of kids who participate.
STEP 1: Set the pile of small items on a table or on the floor.
Tell kids to think of each item as one year. Then direct
them each to grab a handful of items and make a stack that
represents the number of years they have been alive. For
example, if they are 8 years old, they would make a stack of
eight items. You and the other leaders can also make stacks
to represent your age.
STEP 2: Ask kids to name the age of the oldest person
they know. It may be a grandparent or great-grandparent.
Choose a few kids to work together to make a stack (or
stacks) representing that age. Leave all other stacks intact.
STEP 3: Think of something else that is 100 to 300 years old,
such as your country, city, or state. Still leaving all previous
stacks in place, let kids work in pairs to make stacks of 10 or
20, until the stacks eventually add up to the number. (This
step can be skipped if time is short.)
STEP 4: Step back and show amazement at all the stacks that
were made. Then ask kids to discuss these questions with
the kids next to them:
• How many items would you need to show the number
of years in eternity?
• Would the stacks you make fill the room, the church, the
town, or something else?
If eternity is a new word to kids, explain that eternity is time
that goes on forever. It never ends!
STEP 5: Gradually lead the kids to realize that there are not
enough items or enough room in the world to represent
the years of eternity. We can’t even count that high! Share
these key concepts:
© 2016 Awana® Clubs International
This page may be reproduced only by churches registered with Awana.
// NKJV //
B. We each need to make a choice about whether we will
be with God for eternity or not.
STEP 6: Open in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you
and the kids into God’s truth through the lesson. Transition
to main lesson.
Notes:
T&T MISSION: GRACE IN ACTION
RESOURCE BUNDLE ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS
1.5 – GOD IS ETERNAL: MAIN LESSON (10 MINUTES)
OPTION 1: VERSE SCULPTURES
WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Bible in ESV version with bookmark
at Psalm 90:2, whiteboard and dry erase markers, cans
of play dough for each group of three or four kids,
tables or plastic garbage bags
LESSON PREP: Draw or trace a circle on the board. Be sure
to connect the circle lines cleanly so there is no evidence of
where your marker started and ended.
STEP 1: Direct kids to look at your circle. Ask them these
questions:
• Does the circle have a beginning point?
• Does the circle have an end point?
• Does the circle remind you of God in any way? How?
STEP 2: After kids ponder and discuss the questions, write
the word eternal on the board.
Share these key concepts:
A. Like the circle, God has no beginning or end.
B. Because God has no beginning or end, we say that He
is eternal.
C. God has always been alive, and He will always be alive.
D. No one created God. There was never a time when
God was not alive.
STEP 3: Draw a dot on the board and an arrow extending
from the dot. Near the dot write the year you were born.
Near the middle of your arrow, draw another dot with an
arrow extending in same direction. Write the year that
most of your kids were born near the dot.
Share these key concepts:
A. Unlike God, we all had a beginning. We were created by
God, and one day, we were born.
B. I was alive before you, but I wasn’t alive before God
created me, and you weren’t alive before God created you.
C. Everyone and everything else in the world — animals,
trees, the ocean, the stars in space — has a beginning.
© 2016 Awana® Clubs International
This page may be reproduced only by churches registered with Awana.
// NKJV //
D. Optional Fact: Jesus is the only person who had already
been alive before He was born as a human, because
Jesus is God.
(If you used the Lesson Opener Option 2, you can refer to
some of the items displayed as examples of things with a
beginning and end.)
STEP 4: Open your Bible to Psalm 90:2 and read it to the
kids.
Explain that when the verse says from everlasting to
everlasting, it’s another way of saying God is eternal. He has
always been God, and He was alive before He created the
mountains and the entire world. He will be alive as our God
forever!
STEP 5: Divide kids into groups of three or four. (Kids this
age will usually prefer to be in same gender groups.) Give
each group a few cans of play dough. Tell the groups to
shape a picture of Psalm 90:2 with their play dough in five
minutes. (They may set play dough on tables or the garbage
bags on the floor.) For example, they can shape mountains
or the earth and various items on the earth. Encourage
them somehow to show in their picture that God was alive
before the mountains or the earth. Let them be creative
in showing this, but if they get stuck, offer some examples:
they could put a cross in front of the mountains to show
Christ came first or make a circle shape around their
picture to represent God.
STEP 6: Let a few groups share with the larger group
about their sculptures. Then point them back to your
arrows on the board. Extend both arrows as far as you
can on the board.
Share these key concepts:
A. We are not like God because we had a beginning, and
we were not always alive.
B. But we are like God in another way: like God, we will be
alive forever.
Tell them to imagine that these arrows go on and on
forever. Ask a kid to read John 3:16 from the Bible. Then ask
these questions:
• According to John 3:16, who gets eternal life?
• What is eternal life?
PAGE 1 OF 2
T&T MISSION: GRACE IN ACTION
RESOURCE BUNDLE ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS
1.5 – GOD IS ETERNAL: MAIN LESSON (10 MINUTES)
Share these key concepts:
Notes:
A. Eternal life is life forever with God.
B. Eternal life starts when we trust Christ and continues on
forever in heaven.
C. If we believe in Christ, we have eternal life.
D. If we do not believe in Christ, we will still live forever, but
we will be away from God in a terrible place called hell.
© 2016 Awana® Clubs International
This page may be reproduced only by churches registered with Awana.
// NKJV //
PAGE 2 OF 2
T&T MISSION: GRACE IN ACTION
RESOURCE BUNDLE ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS
1.5 – GOD IS ETERNAL: LESSON OPENER (5 MINUTES)
OPTION 2: WHAT’S THE SHELF LIFE?
Notes:
WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Items that don’t last long or that
have an expiration date (e.g., ice cubes, fresh produce,
batteries, glow sticks, light bulbs, candles, flowers), note
card and pen to place by each item, tables upon which
to place items
STEP 1: As kids arrive, direct them to go around to the tables
and look at the items you brought. Tell them to write their
guesses about how long the item will last on the paper.
STEP 2: When most kids have had a chance to look around
and guess, look at their answers and talk about how close
their guesses were. (You may need to research or read
labels to find the shelf life of some of your items.)
Share these key concepts:
A. Everything on the earth had a beginning, when it was
made by God or by humans, and almost everything
has an ending, when it will die or decay or eventually
disappear.
B. However, there are two things that don’t have an ending!
Only God and people will live forever.
STEP 3: Open in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you
and the kids into God’s truth through the lesson. Transition
to main lesson.
© 2016 Awana® Clubs International
This page may be reproduced only by churches registered with Awana.
// NKJV //
T&T MISSION: GRACE IN ACTION
RESOURCE BUNDLE ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS
1.5 – GOD IS ETERNAL: MAIN LESSON (10 MINUTES)
OPTION 2: CREATIVE VERSE EXPRESSION
WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Whiteboard and dry erase markers
LESSON PREP: Draw or trace a circle on the board. Be sure
to connect the circle lines cleanly so there is no evidence of
where your marker started and ended.
STEP 1: Direct kids to look at your circle. Ask them these
questions:
• Does the circle have a beginning point?
• Does the circle have an end point?
• Does the circle remind you of God in any way? How?
STEP 2: After kids ponder and discuss the questions, write
the word eternal on the board.
Share these key concepts:
A. Like the circle, God has no beginning or end.
B. Because God has no beginning or end, we say that He
is eternal.
C. God has always been alive, and He will always be alive.
D. No one created God. There was never a time when
God was not alive.
STEP 3: Draw a dot on the board and an arrow extending
from the dot. Near the dot write the year you were born.
Near the middle of your arrow, draw another dot with an
arrow extending in same direction. Write the year that
most of your kids were born near the dot.
Share these key concepts:
A. Unlike God, we all had a beginning. We were created by
God, and one day, we were born.
B. I was alive before you, but I wasn’t alive before God
created me, and you weren’t alive before God created you.
© 2016 Awana® Clubs International
This page may be reproduced only by churches registered with Awana.
// NKJV //
C. Everyone and everything else in the world — animals,
trees, the ocean, the stars in space — has a beginning.
D. Optional Fact: Jesus is the only person who had already
been alive before He was born as a human, because
Jesus is God.
(If you used the optional opener, you can refer to some of
the items displayed as examples of things with a beginning
and end.)
STEP 4: Open your Bible to Psalm 90:2 and read it to the
kids.
Explain that when the verse says from everlasting to
everlasting, it’s another way of saying God is eternal. He has
always been God, and He was alive before He created the
mountains and the entire world. He will be alive as our God
forever!
STEP 5: Let the kids choose to participate in either a group
drawing of the verse or a group verse song. Choose an adult
leader to lead the song group and another adult leader to
lead the drawing group. In the song group, the adult leader
leads the kids in composing a melody to fit the words of
Psalm 90:2. They can use a familiar tune or make up their
own tune. For the group drawing, the adult leader directs
kids to line up at the board. The leader explains that they will
draw a picture of the verse together. Each person will get a
turn to add to the picture. For example, the first person gets
a turn and might choose to draw a picture of a mountain.
The second person could draw a picture of the earth, and
so on. Give each person no more than 30 seconds to draw
something. Encourage the kids to somehow show in their
picture that God was alive before creation.
STEP 6: Bring all the kids back together and let both groups
share about their creative expressions. Then point them
back to your arrows on the board. Extend both arrows
as far as you can on the board.
Share these key concepts:
A. We are not like God because we had a beginning, and
we were not always alive.
B. But we are like God in another way: like God, we will be
alive forever.
PAGE 1 OF 2
T&T MISSION: GRACE IN ACTION
RESOURCE BUNDLE ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS
1.5 – GOD IS ETERNAL: MAIN LESSON (10 MINUTES)
Tell them to imagine that these arrows go on and on
forever. Ask a kid to read John 3:16 from the Bible. Then ask
these questions:
Notes:
• According to John 3:16, who gets eternal life?
• What is eternal life?
Share these key concepts:
A. Eternal life is life forever with God.
B. Eternal life starts when we trust Christ and continues on
forever in heaven.
C. If we believe in Christ, we have eternal life.
D. If we do not believe in Christ, we will still live forever, but
we will be away from God in a terrible place called hell.
© 2016 Awana® Clubs International
This page may be reproduced only by churches registered with Awana.
// NKJV //
PAGE 2 OF 2