T-Rex and Jesus

Yesterday was our first day of this year’s Vacation BibleSchool program, “The Great Bibleland Dig”, recycled.  The kids had a great time digging in our archaeological dig site outside the city of “Bethlehem” to find clues to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”

So what did they find?

They found a small bottle, like for perfumes.  They found an “ancient” king’s scepter with an “H” inscribed in it.  They found a scroll with what appeared to be a star chart. 

What Bible story do you think we were exploring today?

Right, the story of the Wise Men, or Magi, following a star and bringing gifts to the newborn king that prophecies and studies of ancient texts has foretold.  They learned that Jesus was a GIFT from God, to us.  They learned that Jesus was not the kind of king people expected.  They expected a political royal to usurp the Roman Empire.  They got a servant king.

They made a camel picture and Star of Bethlehem during craft time and ate rice krispy treats wrapped with licorice bows resembling gifts.

They dug for treasure in our archaeological dig site and found nuggets of gold that they could take home. 

They ground up spices and herbs to make a sachet while learning about how these things were used in Jesus’ time.

They colored fuzzy felt dinosaur pictures and learned about another kind of king.  They learned about T-Rex…tyrannosaurus rex.  This dinosaur was so named after the word ‘tyrant.’  He ruled the dinosaur kingdom with fear.  He was a tyrant dinosaur… a ferocious meat eater indiscriminately slaying any dinosaur to cross his path.

Tyrannosaurus rex and Jesus were completely opposite kinds of kings.

T-rex promoted a reign of terror.  Jesus promoted a reign of love.

T-rex was a tyrant king.  Jesus was a servant king.

And in a little church in Parsippany, a bunch of kids had a ton of fun playing amateur archaeologists while learning about Jesus, with a little dinosaur fun on the side. 

They learned that Jesus is God’s GIFT to us.

Amen.