Theme Ideas: Getting into the Bible
Tuesday 9th August 2016Using butterflies and caterpillars to explain new life to the children in your group.
One night a man named Nicodemus came to talk to Jesus. As Jesus was talking to him, he said something that Nicodemus didn’t understand. He told Nicodemus, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Nicodemus was really puzzled by what Jesus said. He just couldn’t understand how someone could be born again. Show the children a picture of a butterfly.
As you probably know, the butterfly started out as a fuzzy little caterpillar. Some people may think caterpillars are cute but no one would ever say that they are beautiful. Then one day the caterpillar spins a cocoon about itself and stays there for several weeks. When it comes out, it is no longer a caterpillar, it is now a beautiful butterfly.
God didn’t just take a caterpillar and stick some wings on it and paint the wings. When the cocoon opens and the butterfly crawls out, it is a new creation. The caterpillar is gone! It has now become a butterfly. That is a good picture of what Jesus meant when he said we had to be “born again.” When we invite Jesus to come into our heart, we become a new creation. God doesn’t just clean us up, he makes us into a new person.
