Young children are concrete thinkers and often have difficulty understanding some of the many abstract concepts in the Bible. Even older kids may struggle with understanding ideas like the power of God. There are some fun things you can do with your kids though, to help them begin to understand a little more about God’s power.
Start by reading Genesis 1:14-16 about God creating the sun. Ask your kids what they already know about the sun. Explain that God made the sun to give off very strong heat and light. Tell them you are going to do some things to see just how powerful the sun is.
Depending upon the amount of time you have and your resources, you can do several things to show your kids the power of the sun.
- If it’s a hot, sunny day, take various items outside and see how long it takes them to melt or wither. To set up a comparison, you may want to try to melt or wither the same items inside with the light of a flashlight or an LED lightbulb. (Please use all safety measures with this and any of these experiments.)
- There are many instructions online for building a solar “oven” using a pizza box and aluminum foil. Build a solar oven with your kids and cook something.
- Many things fade in the sun. This experiment will last over several days, giving you more time to study scriptures about God’s power. Place things like construction paper, fabric stained with tomato product, etc. in the sun. Check to see how much they fade, by comparing them to a similar item not left in the sun or by covering part of it so it receives no sun.
As you discuss the results of your experiment, talk about the power of God. Explain that God is much, much more powerful than the sun – so powerful in fact that our brains can’t really understand it.
Discuss with your kids what it means that God is so powerful. You may choose to talk about miracles or God working in our world today. Your goal is to help them to begin to understand that nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37 and others.).
Understanding God is all powerful is one of the many building blocks of a strong faith foundation. It’s worth taking the time to teach your kids about God’s amazing power.