Job

Hello all

Welcome back. We’ll be finishing out November with some odds and ends from the old testament and a brief history of the 400 “silent” years from the old to new testaments.

Today’s story is about a man named Job (found in the book called Job). We did the “marshmallow” version (found on pinterest) as listed below.

Job was a man who loved God. He was also a very rich man. He had lots of money and sheep and cows. He had a lot of children and a wonderful wife. He was a big important person and everyone thought he was great. He talked to God a lot and tried to do everything God wanted him to do. (hand kids a few marshmallows *could use any treat you have* each time you list something good Job had…but instruct them not to eat them yet.)

One day, Satan (God’s enemy), came to God and said, “You know Job only loves You because You give him everything. I bet if You take everything away, he won’t love you anymore!”

So God took away Job’s children (take some marshmallows), and his sheep and cattle. (take more marshmallows) He took Jobs wife away (take more), He even took Job’s health and he became very sick and ouchy. (take the rest of the treats.)

How do you feel now that all your treats are gone? Are you sad? Mad?

Do you know what Job said? He said “I know You gave me everything, and i know You can take it all away. I will still praise You. I will still love You.”

Job was sad, very very sad…but he still trusted God and knew God was in control.

Job’s friends came and do you know what they said? They said “You must have done something REALLY REALLY BAD! This is a bad consequence for your sins!”

But Job hadn’t done anything wrong.

Job needed his friends to be with him and help him feel better, not tell him he must have been bad. How do you help a friend when they are sad?

God reminded Job that HE WAS in charge and that sometimes sad things will happen to us, but God still loves us. Sometimes when sad things happen, God will help us love Him more. Sometimes, it helps us love other people more. Sometimes…we won’t know why God let the sad thing happen…but we can ALWAYS know that He loves us and will take care of us.

And do you know what happened at the end of Job’s story? God gave him even MORE sheep and cows, more children and he was healthy again! (give kids LOTS of treats they can now eat).

We can always know that God loves us and is taking care of us. We might not get everything good while we live here. But if we love God, we know when we die and go to live in heaven with Him that He will share with us ALL the greatest things, better than anything we have now.

Is there anything sad in your life today? Can you thank God for helping you through it and for loving you no matter what?

For our craft today, we traced our hands, palm up and then cut out a heart. We attached the heart using bendy straws so it would stand up on the hands and look like the hands were lifting up God’s name.

We wrote “God” on the heart and Job 1:21 on the hands. “The Lord gives and takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord.” Which means, God gives us everything we have and He can take it away if He thinks that’s best…but we can love Him no matter what because we KNOW He loves us and is taking care of us.