Use with the Tract-for-Treat, Meet-for-Treats, and Give the Gift Activities.
Objective
Show your children Jesus’ example of meeting people where they are and changing their perspective.
Scripture Focus
Read John 4:4-29 with your child.
Focus
There were many reasons why Jesus would not have wanted to go to that well and talk with that woman. In Jesus’ day there were many separations. He was a man and she was a woman, and men did not talk alone with women who were not their wives. He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan. The Jews hated the Samaritans and treated them like they were less important to God. However, Jesus went where he knew she would be so that he could share good news with her.
Discussion Questions
1. Was this woman someone that people would have thought was a good woman?
(She had many relationship with several men that would not have been accepted.)
2. Do you think people would have liked that Jesus was talking to her?
(Probably not. The religious people always criticized Jesus for spending time with sinners.)
3. Did Jesus make her come to him, or did he go where he knew that she would be?
(He went to where she came everyday to get water.)
4. Did the Samaritan woman understand what Jesus was talking about at first?
(She was confused about the living water he wanted to give her.)
5. What was the end result of her meeting with Jesus?
(She went and told others about him.)
Activity
- Take two cups. Fill one with water and put in a few drops of red food coloring, not a lot. Fill the other cup with bleach. Don’t tell your kids what is in it.
- Explain that the different color of the liquid in the cups represents us and the world around us. God has cleaned us from our sins and so we are different on the inside and we are supposed to act different on the outside. The world around us that does not have Jesus looks different than us because they don’t have Jesus in their lives.
- Ask your child what might happen if you pour the clear liquid into the red liquid.
- Explain that many times we are afraid of mixing with people who are not Christians because we don’t want to be changed by the world to be like them. God wants us to be different.
- Pour the bleach into the red water and watch as the water becomes clear.
- Explain that while we don’t want the world to change us, we want to change the world. The only way we can do that is by going where the people are and sharing God’s love with them so that he can change them too.
Conclusion
Jesus went where to where the Samaritan woman was so that he could help her understand the good news about Him. Jesus loves all people and wants them to know him. He wants us to go where people are that need him so that we can share his love with them. That is the only way that they will ever know about Jesus and his love.
Explain the activity that you will be doing with your children and how you are following Jesus example of going where people are to show them the love of God. Just like Jesus had to change the woman at the well’s perspective, you hope that you can change your neighbors’ and friends’ perspective from the ghosts and scary stuff of Halloween to the love of God. If you are using the Give the Gift activity, emphasize that Jesus offered the woman at the well living water. That is what you are really hoping to give the people you give the gift to, because you want to introduce them to Jesus.
Prayer
Pray with your child that God would help you find people around you that need him, and that you would have the courage to go where they are and share with them God’s love. Also pray that God would help keep you from being change by the world.
Other Ideas
Expand the perspective for your children by using their costumes. Have them dress up as someone that represents a person or people group that they can pray for. Sit down as a family and brainstorm what they might dress up as and feel free to be creative. (For example: A Ninja can pray for the lost in Asia, a football player can pray for those who are lost within the sports culture, a sea creature can pray for the fishermen and Navy men who do not know Christ, dressing as Elvis could represent the child’s desire to pray for music stars who need Jesus, etc.) As a family, pray for the salvation of whomever they dress as…both during your planning and on Halloween night! If you’re ambitious, you could even do a little research on your people group, locate them on a map, and discuss their world with your child. Encourage your child that to share the gospel with others, we want to understand them first. This will encourage your children to open their eyes to the needs of the world and to live missionally. You can even tell your kids about how some people have been “tricked” or led astray into unbelief and have missed out on God’s “treat”—everlasting life now and forevermore!