Esther
God gives us strength when we feel confused and scared
If you are meeting early in the day, ask everyone to look in their bag and find today’s activity. Talk about eagles. What are they like? How do they fly? What kind of paper ‘plane will you make?
If you are meeting later in the day, ask people how they got on finding out about eagles? Did they find out anything new? Invite people to show their paper ‘planes. How well do they fly?
Ask someone to read out today’s family activity Bible passage from Isaiah 40:30-31
Explain that while we are all together online today, we are going to think about a story from the Bible where someone had to be very smart and brave, and to speak up for what was right. To do this they had to trust that God would be with them. The person in today’s story is called Esther.
Today’s story has a refrain with actions:
ESTHER WAS SMART
(point to your head)
ESTHER WAS BRAVE
(Cross your arms in front of your body and clench your fists)
Practice the actions with everyone. If you have a larger group it will probably work better to mute all participants, apart from the storyteller. Everyone can still say the refrain at home, but only the storyteller will be heard OR just ask everyone to do the actions of the refrain and not say the words.
Use the script available in the Downloads Box to tell the story of Esther.
Explain to everyone that Esther and her family loved God and followed him. They trusted him to help them in this very difficult situation. Ask everyone to choose one of the following scenes and to create a picture of that part of the story, using whatever materials they have in the house (e.g. pen and paper, lego!) You might want to screenshare and show this as a PowerPoint slide, or hold up the words in front of your camera:
- Esther tells the King about the plot to kill him.
- Mordecai asks Esther to speak to the King about Haman’s plan to kill all the Jews.
- Esther prepares a big feast for the King and tells him what Haman is going to do.
- The Jewish people are saved, and Mordecai is given Haman’s job.
Give people plenty of time to do the activity and then invite everyone to show their picture and to talk about what kind of strength God gave Esther in that part of the story.
Say the following words from the passage on today’s activity card together after discussing each scene:
“…those who trust in the Lord will receive new strength.”
Ask everyone to think of something they are dealing with just now where they need to trust God and receive his strength. What is making them feel confused or scared? Invite everyone to look at the scene they made and to listen to the words of this prayer. When they hear the words “smart and brave” they can do the actions they did for the story earlier on.
Father God,
Esther must have been scared and confused.
But you made her smart and brave.
Please help us to trust you
When we are scared and confused.
Make us smart and brave.
AMEN
Say goodbye to everyone and look forward to seeing them tomorrow.