I’m a mother of five, and with a set of five year old twins and a three year old, and I might be able to relate to your concern about teaching this chapter. I also have taught the toddlers and fours and fives at church for the last five years or so, chapter by chapter directly from the Bible, and I’m thrilled to hear of you, also teaching “every word” of the Bible, even when it doesn’t seem interesting or perhaps even understandable to a small child. I think of Timothy, and how he KNEW the Holy Scripture from a child, and it makes me feel that NO scripture should be omitted when we’re teaching little children, because of wanting them to KNOW the scriptures – ALL of them! There’s no greater armor for our children’s souls, and no other way to an unshakable faith than the WHOLE council of God. But in building that firm foundation, often it’s a real challenge to make the passages understandable to the newly emerging consciousness of a small child.
One little girl in my class whose grandfather had died recently, after hearing a lesson on Jephthah, (in which I tried to bring out the beauty of promises kept and the eternal joy of a probable reunion of father and daughter in Abraham’s bosom ) said, “I don’t want to go to heaven. I want to build a new house and have another baby brother.” From across the table a little boy piped, “Well, there are only two places to go, and I sure don’t want to go to the other one!” Wow, does that ever humble me, as a teacher! Keep in mind these kids were ages 3 and almost 5.
Death in any form is kind of hard to discuss with really young children, especially since their thinking is on all different levels in any given group of kids. It may also make them feel scared or uncertain, or threatened. How do they understand “dead?” Dead like a bug, just gone? Dead like sleeping permanently? Dead like going someplace else where the living can’t come?
But in teaching Genesis 23, it might be helpful to concentrate on how God views the death of the righteous. First of all, as God’s children, (since He is in complete control) we are protected entirely unless HE gives the word, as it says in Matthew10:29-31 “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?” and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. That’s a comfort that many denominational teachers try to take from us by saying, “God doesn’t like sorrow, and he doesn’t cause sickness, the Devil does.”
Wow, how sad to think that! If that were true, the Devil would be more powerful than God, and that’s a downright dismal picture! In contrast with that error, I get a pretty good understanding of the Devil’s power and position with God by studying the chapters in Job that talk about God’s ALLOWing Satan to touch Job, but having COMPLETE CONTROL over EXACTLY what he did, and working all the things for Job’s good in the end, to purify and form Job. Rom 8:28 And we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. That’s a comfort, to know that 2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God’s not going to allow us to die before HE is ready, and that’s going to be the best time for us.
But aside from the timing of our own death, how does God view death itself? Psa. 116:15 “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” Eze. 33:11 “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
What kind of life had Sarah lived? Was her “Life” ended, or just beginning? Was Abraham’s grief eternal, or only temporary? Was God pleased to be able to take Sarah to himself, and have her removed from her physical misery of aging, etc. to put her in a wonderful “rest?” Why was Abraham sad? Because he MISSED her, not because he had no hope of ever seeing her again. I think even a small child can understand this, and in my teaching the toddlers and fours and fives, talking about death has always has seemed to prick their desire to please God and “be good” to go to heaven instead of hell – which CAN’T be a bad thing! 😉
So you could use the opportunity to talk about eternal versus temporal things, about the physical things vs the spiritual rhelm. My dad uses a wonderful illustration to help open the children’s spiritual sight – What color is the wind? I can’t see it but I can see what it DOES. What color is humility? Where is it? How does it smell? Can you touch it? No, but though we can’t taste, touch, smell, or feel humility, you can SEE the RESULTS of it. It makes us serve each other, not boast, etc. What shape is love? How does envy smell? Where is compassion? These are spiritual things, and can’t be perceived with our bodies, only with our minds. But they are just as real is the things we can perceive with our senses, and God wants us to lay up treasure in those good qualities in our hearts, just like Sarah did.
1 Pet 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1 Pet 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1 Pet 3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:
1 Pet 3:6 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
Was Sarah too afraid to follow Abraham out in the desert and live in tents? Was she too afraid to leave her people and sacrifice a life of luxury to be a permanent pilgrim on this earth? Does she regret any of this now? NO! She has an eternal reward. Her faith had her looking for that city whose builder and maker is God. Her death was the realization of all that hope. Hooray! That’s a lesson for all of us, but even little children can begin to have an elementary understanding of that kind of faith, and can see the joy in her death, despite Abraham’s temporary sorrow.
As for activities, the developmental level of the kids might affect what you would do. You could take an empty oatmeal box and turn it into a cave, and have the kids make a Sarah out of dowel rods and wooden balls and old cloth, wrap her, and “bury” her, saying, “See you soon, Sarah!” Or you could go on the web and copy pictures of a cave, and make a tracing of that and do a lift-a-flap picture. Any Bible picture of an old man from another lesson would work for Abraham, and Sarah’s body need not show her face, right? Or you could have the kids SHOW what their own (unseen, spiritual quality) LOVE DOES, by making cards for a sick person, etc.
I didn’t mean to go on and on about this, only to maybe give you an idea of where to go with the lesson. There may not a lot of action-type facts in the chapter that seem interesting, but you can certainly have a group of K and pre-K kids interested, animated, and actively participating in class if you only bring in the understanding of the spiritual things, and eternity. I hope these thoughts help, and keep up the good work!
In Christian Love,
Ferah Glott