{"id":1043,"date":"2016-04-15T12:10:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T18:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2018-04-11T10:37:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T16:37:06","slug":"object-lesson-jesus-is-the-best-gift-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/object-lesson-jesus-is-the-best-gift-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Object Lesson: Jesus Is the Best Gift Ever!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.group.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Group<\/a>, we always have crazy experiments happening around the building. Watching my coworkers find clever and creative ways to help kids grow in their relationship with Jesus is one of my favorite things to do. Just yesterday, my friend Ali had about 20 clear cups on her desk along with dish soap, vegetable oil, milk, corn syrup, water, and food coloring. \u00a0She was testing the idea that, depending on which order you pour the ingredients, they would either remain in layers or stay separated.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t quite go the way she planned,\u00a0BUT the cool thing about a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mylifetree.com\/jesus-centered\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jesus-centered life<\/a> is that you start to see Jesus everywhere \u2013 like in vegetable oil!<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what happened: As she was cleaning up, Ali realized that no matter how she\u00a0poured the ingredients into the cup, the vegetable oil always came to the top. Ali tried this experiment in a new way today (spoiler alert: it worked this time!) as a possible object lesson for\u00a0our new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.group.com\/category\/ministry-resources\/childrens-ministry\/sunday-school\/dig-in.do\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DIG IN Sunday school curriculum<\/a>. Here&#8217;s how it turned out&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Bible point:<\/strong><\/span> Jesus is the best gift ever!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Key verse:<\/strong><\/span> Luke 2:1-7 (Yes, we are working on Christmas lessons in April)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Supplies:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>tall glass<\/li>\n<li>large clear plastic cups, one for every four kids<\/li>\n<li>4 smaller cups per four kids<\/li>\n<li>honey<\/li>\n<li>milk<\/li>\n<li>dish soap<\/li>\n<li>vegetable oil<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Easy Prep<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pour a little bit of each liquid into four separate cups. You\u2019ll need one set of four cups per four kids.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Mix It Up<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Say: <strong><u>Jesus is the best gift ever<\/u>. Sometimes other gifts might seem better.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Ask: <strong>What\u2019s a gift someone might think is better than Jesus?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Say: <strong>But Jesus will always come out on top, because <u>Jesus is the best gift ever<\/u>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Have kids form groups of four. Distribute supplies to each group.\u00a0Hold up the vegetable oil and say: <strong>Let\u2019s pretend this liquid represents Jesus. <\/strong>Pour it into a clear cup. Have one child in each group pour the vegetable oil into their cup.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ask: <strong>What do you think will happen if we pour another liquid in the cup?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Have another child in each group choose a second cup to pour into the cup. The vegetable oil will rise to the top. (It may take a few seconds.)<\/p>\n<p>Continue until everyone has poured one of the liquids in the cup. Regardless of the order you pour things in, it will end up in four distinct layers in this order (from top to bottom): vegetable oil, dish soap, milk, honey.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ask: <strong>What do you think will happen if we combine all of our cups?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Have groups each pour their cups into the tall glass. Within a few seconds, the oil will create its own layer on top. (The other layers may combine a bit, but the oil will remain separate.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Talk About It<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ask:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why do you think the vegetable oil always stayed on top?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong> How can other people see that you think Jesus is the top gift?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Say: <strong>Sometimes people make Christmas wish lists, starting with the things they want the <em>most<\/em>. Those are probably really awesome gifts! But we\u2019ve already gotten <u>the best gift ever\u2014Jesus<\/u>! Any other gift will sink below him because he\u2019s the best gift ever!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>No matter how they mix the ingredients, the vegetable oil always rises to the top. In the same way, no matter what happens, Jesus always rises to the top! He is above all else! He is the best gift ever!<\/p>\n<p>After the kids have seen this on a small scale in their groups, they get a real big wow at the end when all the groups combine their already mixed ingredients into one big clear container and still, all the vegetable oil rises to the top! This is a great object lesson\u00a0for kids as they learn to trust Jesus, rely on Him, and truly believe that He is above all else!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Check out other\u00a0sample lessons and\u00a0take the DIG IN\u00a0demo for a test drive<\/strong> by <a href=\"http:\/\/diginapp.group.com\/LessonBuilder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">clicking here<\/a>!\u00a0Or, if you just want to learn more about DIG IN you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o6xarj5egWg?rel=0&amp;showinfo=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">watch this video<\/a>. Let us know what you think\u00a0in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here at Group, we always have crazy experiments happening around the building. Watching my coworkers find clever and creative ways to help kids grow in their relationship with Jesus is one of my favorite things to do. Just yesterday, my friend Ali had about 20 clear cups on her desk along with dish soap, vegetable oil, milk, corn syrup, water, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":1046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-school"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Object Lesson: Jesus Is the Best Gift Ever! - Group Children&#039;s Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here at Group, we always have crazy experiments happening around the building. Watching my coworkers find clever and creative ways to help kids grow in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/object-lesson-jesus-is-the-best-gift-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Object Lesson: Jesus Is the Best Gift Ever! - Group Children&#039;s Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here at Group, we always have crazy experiments happening around the building. Watching my coworkers find clever and creative ways to help kids grow in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/object-lesson-jesus-is-the-best-gift-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Group Children&#039;s Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GroupChildrensMinistry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-15T18:10:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-11T16:37:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/04\/IMG_2619.jpg.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"902\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kylee Beard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@groupkidmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@groupkidmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kylee Beard\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/object-lesson-jesus-is-the-best-gift-ever\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/object-lesson-jesus-is-the-best-gift-ever\/\",\"name\":\"Object Lesson: Jesus Is the Best Gift Ever! - Group Children&#039;s Ministry\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/object-lesson-jesus-is-the-best-gift-ever\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/object-lesson-jesus-is-the-best-gift-ever\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/04\/IMG_2619.jpg.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-15T18:10:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-11T16:37:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#\/schema\/person\/78bb97f5811761384f1b40fd9374b9c4\"},\"description\":\"Here at Group, we always have crazy experiments happening around the building. 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