1 God from 3 Ropes?
Needed:
- 1ea 4’ rope (the rope needs to be fairly smooth so that it slides upon itself without much friction)
- 2ea 5” ropes, the same type as the 4’ rope
Prep:
- Lay out the long rope and the two small ropes as you see in the picture
- Gather the two ends of one of the short ropes and one of the ends of the long rope and tie a knot that completely covers where the two ropes meet.
- Do the exact same thing for the other end of the ropes.
Lesson:
You can use this lesson to teach a couple of different things but in this case I am going to use it to illustrate that there is only one God.
Hold up the ropes so everyone can see them.
“What do I have here?”
You would hear lots of different answers but what you’re looking for is something like, “three ropes”.
“Yes, you are correct. Here are three ropes with knots tied in either end and today I’m going to use this to show that there is only one God. Some people say that there are three gods or what is called a Trinity which is made up of the father, the son and the Holy Ghost.
But we know that there are… HOW MANY GODS??!?!”
From the kids that have been coming to your class for a while you should hear a chorus of “ONE”!
“And what is His name!?”
You should of course hear them scream JESUS.
“Yes, his name is Jesus but some people are very confused and think there are three gods so today I need someone to pick two of the three people in the Trinity.”
Untie the knot on one of the ends and then select the two ends of the short piece of rope and tie them together around the longer rope referring to those two ends as whichever to persons of the Trinity they picked such as “father” and “son”.
“Okay, now we have tied the father and son together so now someone pick to different persons in the Trinity. “
Do the same process as before using the two persons that they chose. You should now have one long rope with the two short pieces tied on at intervals. It will look like you have just tied the three ropes together.
“So how many gods are there? What’s His name? So now we have the father, son and Holy Ghost and they are all one God!”
Proudly hold up the rope with the knots in it. People will probably not be impressed.
“So this is a good enough? You are right. We can do better than that.“
Begin winding the rope around your hand and when you get to the small pieces of rope that are tied around it simply slide those down the length of the rope keeping them concealed in your hand. Talk the whole time you are doing this so they are concentrating on what you are saying and not what you are doing. When you get to the end you should have both of the short pieces of rope concealed in the palm of your hand.
“Now where did I put my magic wand?”
Reach into your pocket and get your magic wand or whatever you want to use and deposit the palm pieces of rope into your pocket while retrieving it.
“How many gods are there? What is His name?”
Slowly and dramatically unwind the rope from around your hand and show the full unbroken rope.
“You see there truly is only ONE God and his name is JESUS!”
You can also use this illustration to teach the putting back together of a broken life.
