Hello again friends.

Today is our last story in Genesis and it’s from Genesis 48.

Joseph was growing older and his daddy Jacob was VERY old and getting sick. He was about to die, so Joseph went to visit him. Joseph took two of his sons, Manasseh (the older boy) and Ephraim (the younger boy) to see their grandpa.

Jacob gave both boys a special blessing and said “they will be like my children and get the promises of God, just like my other sons.”

Then Joseph had the boys kneel down in front of Jacob/Israel and he put Manasseh, the older one, on the right side and Ephraim, the younger one, on the left side and Jacob/Israel said he would give them special blessings. BUT, he crossed his hands and started to bless the younger brother.

Joseph said, “oh no, dad! THIS is the first boy who SHOULD get the blessing!”

But Israel/Jacob said “No. They will both be blessed, but the younger brother will be greater than the older. And they will inherit the promised land just like my other sons.”

Jacob blessed all his sons and said they would be 12 great tribes. They would each get part of the land God promised them. Then Jacob died. Joseph promised his brothers it would be ok. They all stayed in Egypt a long time, but knew one day their people would return to the land God promised them.

God has been working all along to show us that He doesn’t always pick the “best” or “most important” people. God reaches out to everyone who will have Him. Jesus would come from a whole line of people who were “less than” but He would be great. There is nothing too small or too weak for God. There is no bad choice too big for God to handle. There is no person small or bad enough that God’s love can not overcome it.

God also keeps His promises. He has a big plan for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. Jesus would come from Judah’s (one of Jacob’s kids) families. And tomorrow we’ll start learning about Moses (a man from the tribe of Levi, another one of Jacob’s sons).

For our craft, we traced the kids’ arms and hands. Then we drew two heads and glued their hands criss-cross on the heads.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.