Time
15-20 minutes
Description
This object lesson teaches about our hearts and how God works in them to produce something beautiful. It’s preferable to do it outside.
Audience
Children, youth, adults
Materials
o Landscaping edging (I used 20 ft, but that is quite big.)
o Stakes for the edging (8-10 should do if you create the 20 ft heart.)
o Hammer
o Potting soil
o Spade or some other gardening tool
o (Optional) Gardening gloves and hat
o Watering can with water in it
o Assorted garbage – plastic, peelings, etc. (Be careful not to put anything in the soil that might cut fingers.)
o Hard soil to spread over the top of the heart (enough to cover the surface)
o Rocks – several dozen of assorted sizes to mix in with the soil
o Manure/fertilizer – actual manure is good for shock value, but fertilizer will make the point.
o Sprouts – a few small plants just beginning to show above the soil
o Beautiful flowers or ground cover – enough to cover most or all of the heart
o Marker
o Packages of seeds (4 or more)
Preparation
o Create a heart shape with the landscaping edging, and stake it down. (Cut the edging in half to make this easier.)
o Fill the shape almost to the top with potting soil.
o Mix some garbage and rocks into the soil.
o Cover the soil and the garbage with hard soil clods that you’ve dug up from somewhere else
o Label the seed packages using the marker so that they say, “Answered Prayer,” “Truth,” “Kindness and Love,” and “Hope.” If you have more than four packages, you can label them with other “seeds from God” that you can think of.
o Practice the script.
Procedure
Use the following script and instructions (or modify to suit your needs):
• “I’m going to give you a picture of what our hearts are like.”
• “Think of your heart like a garden.”
• “Before we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the soil in our heart is hard and dead. Nothing will grow there except weeds.” (Show hard soil in heart.)
• “But God wants to make our hearts beautiful, so the first thing He does is to break up all that hard soil.” (Ask a volunteer to come break up the soil with a spade or some other tool. Hand them the gloves and the gardening hat if you have them.)
• “This isn’t very fun for us. Our hard hearts are difficult to break up, and the tools that God uses are sometimes very sharp.”
• “He might allow us to go through some difficult experiences or lose something we love, but He only does this to break up the hard soil and start planting good seeds on the inside.”
• “Thankfully, God will also pour in some Living Water to help break up the soil.” (Have volunteer pour in some water.)
• “Living Water is the Word of God. It’s the Bible. The Scriptures are like water to a thirsty soul, and we need to drink deeply of them every day to stay spiritually healthy.”
• “Sometimes breaking up the hard soil takes a very long time. The harder the soil in our hearts, the longer it will take God to make it usable for His purposes.”
• “Once the hard soil is broken up, God will remove the parts that are unusable.” (Have volunteer pull our chunks that don’t break down into the soil.)
• “By breaking up the hard soil, God can give you a new heart.”
• “If you are willing to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your heart will be made new.” (Make sure audience can see the potting soil.)
• “The Scriptures say that God will remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 11:19)
• “Now, when a gardener is preparing soil, he mixes in some nasty stuff like this manure.” (Give manure/fertilizer to volunteer, and have him/her mix it into the soil.)
• “It stinks, it’s gross, you really don’t want to deal with it, but it’s the best way to make the soil rich and ready to grow healthy plants and flowers.”
• “Romans 8:28 tells us that when you give your heart to God, He will use even the bad stuff in your past to enrich your heart ‘soil.’”
• “In other words, He will use the times you’ve been hurt, the times bad things happened to you and the bad decisions you made to bless you.”
• “That’s great news!!!!”
• “God then plants some seeds in your heart.” (Have volunteer sprinkle in some seeds and work them in with the spade.)
• “Actually, God plants seeds even before you become a Christian, when your heart is hard, but many of them don’t make it into the soil.”
• “When Jesus taught about this, He said that the birds of the air will steal the seeds before they have a chance to take root in the hard soil.”
• “He told his disciples that the birds of the air represent our enemy, Satan, who doesn’t want God’s truth to get into your heart.”
• “God’s seeds can represent times when He answered prayers for you or times when He spoke some truth into your life through a friend or teacher or parent or event a stranger.” (Have volunteer show the labels on these packages of seeds.)
• “Sometime an act of kindness or love can plant a seed.” (Have volunteer show the label on this package and pour in some seeds.)
• “And sometimes God gives you hope in difficult situation.” (Have volunteer show label on this package and pour in some seeds.)
• “When God plants His seeds, He is faithful to continue to water the seeds with His Living Word and shine the light of His Son on them.” (Have volunteer water the seeds.)
• “Eventually, some of those seeds will start to grow in our hearts.” (Have volunteer plant a few spouts in the soil.)
• “God will continue to water and care for these while He plants even more seeds.” (Have volunteer water soil and plant a few more seeds.)
• “But just because we got new hearts doesn’t mean that our hearts are completely pure.” (Have volunteer sift through soil until he/she finds trash or rocks.)
• “We probably still have trash that we allowed into our hearts before we became Christians, and it’s likely that we still have some hard places in our hearts.”
• “The trash represents sinfulness that we haven’t dealt with yet, and the rocks represent emotional hard places – hurts, pains, disappointments, hatreds, fears… that we haven’t allowed God into.”
• “God can plant beautiful things in the parts of our hearts that we give to Him, but He can’t do anything with the areas we won’t trust Him with.”
• “The trash and the hard places will stay in our hearts until we allow God to help us get rid of them.”
• “While other parts of our heart are showing new life and the evidence of God’s work, these places are in danger of hardening back up if we don’t turn them over to God.”
• “The more we trust God, the more beautiful our hearts will become.” (Have the volunteer replace the sprouts with some beautiful flowers.)
• “And when our hearts are beautiful, God will use them to bring joy and happiness to other people who see them.”
• “That’s beautiful, isn’t it?” (Thank and dismiss volunteer.)
• “So, are we done? Can we just let it alone and enjoy it?” (Listen for responses.)
• “No. If we leave it alone, what will happen?” (Listen for responses.)
• “Right! It will die. These flowers need watering and sunshine every day.”
• “In the same way, you need to meet with God every day – to enjoy His Son and to get the Living Water that comes from the Bible.”
• “And even if we do that everyday, is that enough to keep our heart garden healthy?” (Listen to responses.)
• “No, because we have an enemy, and his name is Satan.”
• “Satan plants seeds, too, but they grow into weeds that will choke out the beauty from our garden.”
• “Satan’s seeds are bad thoughts, worries, fears, resentments and other things that keep us from loving God, loving our neighbor and loving ourselves.”
• “Whenever you notice a weed in your heart garden, what should you do?” (Listen to responses.)
• “Right, pull it out! Don’t let those bad thoughts or worries or fears stay. Yank them out!”
• “Okay, let’s practice the Rhyme Time for this lesson to help us remember it:”
My heart is the garden
Where God plants His seeds.
We tend it together
And pull all the weeds!
Teach Them 