Unleashing Creativity
Kids in the Kingdom, January 2006

For the January Kids in the Kingdom Sunday, we read the book Twice Yours. In the book a grandfather is carving something for his grandson while telling him a story from his own life. When the grandfather was a boy he carved a boat and made a sail for it. Then he would take the boat down to the creek to let it float down the water, while he kept up with it by a string tied to the boat.

One day the string broke and the boy could not find the boat. After several attempts on different days, the boy finally went much farther downstream and found another boy playing with his now battered boat. Invoking "finders keepers" the second boy insisted that if he wanted his boat back, he would have to trade. The boy gave everything he had to get the boat he had made back—all of the collected treasures in his pockets. Then he proclaimed his love for his boat saying that it was twice his as he had created it and then paid everything to buy it back.

The grandfather then explained this is like Jesus who made us, and then gave everything to buy us back from sin because of his great love. After hearing a story of creation it seemed best to let the kids create whatever they wanted to out of piles of materials. It was rewarding to see their creativity unleashed.

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