Easy Christmas Light Object Lesson: Missing a Light

Twinkling holiday lights makes the season bright and they are an eye-catching item to use for an object lesson. If you have access to a safe strand of lights (with no kinks or breaks in the cord) you have everything you need to share a powerful visual lesson with your kids’ ministry group. You can demonstrate these mini lessons with a volunteer or you can show them yourself. Looking for a fun way to give a volunteer some teaching experience? Print a copy of this object lesson and provide a strand of lights to an aspiring teacher.
Missing a Light
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Matthew 5:15
Before the class, you need to carefully remove one of the Christmas light bulbs and set it aside. (Don’t lose it!) It’s a good idea to test the strand before you use stand before the class. You need a strand that stops working if a light is broken or missing. For fun, hang the lights around your shoulder or if you prefer, lay the rope of Christmas lights on a flat table.
Here’s what you could say, “Guess what I have? That’s right! Christmas lights! I love how they twinkle and shine. You can hang them anywhere and they glow so prettily. I’m thinking about hanging these lights somewhere in our room but we’ve got to test them first. Sometimes a string of Christmas lights won’t work. Let’s take a look!” (Plug in the strand of lights.)
“Oh no! We’ve got a problem. It looks like our strand is broken. It stopped working right here. You know, this reminds me of a Bible verse from the Book of Matthew. This verse says that each person who has Jesus living inside them also has his light. We have to allow this Jesus-light to shine, not hide it. When we do hide our light, we break the chain, kind of like this strand of Christmas lights. Here’s a question for you: Which is brighter just one small light or a whole strand of lights?” (Allow kids to guess.)
“That’s right! When we all allow Jesus to shine through us, we make the world a brighter place! Guess what I found!” (Plug in the missing light and watch the strand shine together.) You can spend the rest of your class time talking about how they can “shine.”