January 11: The Good Shepherd

January 11: The Good Shepherd (John 10:1-21)

Sheep are beautiful creatures made by God. What animals might be a predator to a sheep? (Wolves, foxes, etc.) Some people have a job of being a shepherd for sheep. What job do you think a shepherd has? (Makes sure they get food and water, keeps them safe, keeps bad animals away, etc.) Every now and then, one of the sheep has its nose to the ground, eating peacefully, and slowly wanders away from the other sheep. Whenever this happens, the shepherd's job is to guide the lost sheep back to the herd where he belongs. A good shepherd will also defend his sheep from wild animals. A bad shepherd will get scared and run away at the first sign of danger.

God tells us that people are like sheep. Weird, huh!? We don't have wool, and we don't eat grass, but sometimes we do wander away from God, wanting to do things our own way. Most of us know right from wrong in our heads, but sometimes we forget about what's right and do what we want to. God knows that we are not perfect, so He sent His Son, Jesus, to be our shepherd. Jesus took on all our sins when He died on the cross for us.

Jesus explained to His followers that He was a good shepherd. He came to protect us by giving His life for us. He did this so that we might enjoy life to its fullest and have the hope of living forever. Jesus is our guide. He is always ready to lead us back on the path of living right and making good choices. We can be thankful Jesus hasn't left us alone. He is always protecting us like a good shepherd. 

-Why did Jesus tell this story (He said that people are like sheep)
-Who is the Good Shepherd (Jesus. He is our guide and always ready to lead us back to the right path when we wander and do bad things.)
-Does Jesus ever leave us alone? (No, Jesus wants us to listen to Him and follow Him by doing the right things.)

For this activity, I gave each student a piece of transparency paper (like overhead projector style) and a permanent marker to draw a sheep. Then, they used a glue/water mixture to paint the sheep and add small pieces of tissue paper to decorate their sheep in a way similar to them {One of them loves Virginia Tech, so his sheep was orange and maroon}. Once the sheep were dry, we cut them out to create window decorations with us as sheep.