Watching a baby chick hatching from an egg is like watching a life transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. And since it’s spring it’s the perfect time to talk about this transformation and of course use cute and cuddly baby chicks to make the point come to life. First of few verses to explain what I’m talking about. You could relate this baby chick object lesson directly to the Easter story or just use the verses below.
Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Ezekiel 36:26, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
You’ll need a video of baby chicks hatching. I recommend Baby Chick Hatching in Real Time or Chicken Hatching on YouTube. You can download videos from YouTube right to your computer. Or if your facility has Internet then just queue up the video and pause it until you’re ready to use it.
Introduce the object lesson to the kids by sharing the above verses. You could ask them questions like, “Do you sometimes find it painful to become more like Christ?” Explain to children what you mean. You might say, “Sometimes our mind wants to do the opposite of what God wants us to do and that can feel painful. Sometimes we really wanted to do the things we want to do above the things that God wants us to do. Don’t you find this to be true?”
Allow time for discussion about the transformation process. Remind children that patience is sometimes needed if we are to grow in Christ. Now show the video. At the end of the video tell children, “See? We’re like the chickens in those eggs. We are struggling to grow, to be free from all the things that weigh us down and stop us from growing and becoming the new creature God promised us. If we are patient and trust God to transform us, we will be like those baby chicks — free to live for God!”
Read more from Mimi by following her blog at Tools for Kids Church.
