This lesson is part of God's Story of Work for Kids, a 12-week curriculum that teaches children to see work through God's perspective.

Main Idea: God's work is the restoration of his original design.

Props

• broken pieces of a mug or other broken object
• a branch or stick
• whiteboard or large Post-It
• whiteboard marker

Opening

Leader: Have you ever tried to fix something that was broken? I have a pile of pieces in my hand. Can you guess what it might have been? (Invite the kids to make guesses.)That's right, it was a mug. If I work very carefully and patiently, I can try to put it back together so that this messy pile of pieces can become the mug it was originally meant to be. That's called "restoration."

Actually, ALL of these show who God is. One is not better than another because God is ALL of these and so much more.

The word "restoration" means to have something return to the original condition. Sometimes famous works of art become hard to see over time due to many years of soot, grime, and buildup on the original work. Restorers who work for museums carefully clean the artwork to reveal its original beautiful colors and design.

During the past two weeks, we learned that God is a _______ (Invite children to fill in the blank.) Yes, God is a worker! And he made us not to be robots but ___________ in his work. (Invite children to fill in the blank.) We are invited to be partners in God's work.

But what work is God up to? It's a lot tougher than putting a mug back together. To understand the work we are invited to partner in, we need to first take a look at Genesis 3.

God had created the perfect world. His original design was very good. There was no pain in work, and Adam, Eve and God enjoyed a free, loving relationship with each other. It was a joy to tend the garden. God had made a beautiful garden with hundreds of trees and plants. In it, there was one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that he told Adam and Eve that they should not eat from because they would die. Now let's take a look at what happened next.

Scripture Lesson

Read aloud or ask a child to stand and read for the group.

Genesis 3:1-8

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Leader: Remember how God didn't make human beings robots? He could have made it so that humans only did the right thing all the time. But instead, he gave us free will - the ability to choose what we want to do. Adam and Eve were free to choose, and they chose to do things their way instead of trusting God. As soon as Adam and Eve disobeyed, the original design God had for the world was broken. (Snap the stick in half for emphasis.) What changes in Adam and Eve's relationship with God do you notice happen immediately? (Invite children to respond.)

Yes, immediately Adam and Eve felt shameful of their nakedness and felt the need to make some kind of covering. And instead of freely talking to God, they were afraid when they heard God walking in the garden and hid. Shame. Fear. Hiding. All these things have no entered God's design. In fact, all relationships were now broken. The four key relationships Adam and Eve had - with God, each other, creation, and themselves - were no longer completely good, loving, and trusting. Even when they looked at their own selves, they felt ashamed and guilty, no longer free to just be themselves.

In this terrible moment where Adam and Eve chose against God's desires, what is wonderful to read is the next verse.

Genesis 3:9

But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

God knows everything. At that moment, as Adam and Eve were hiding in fear, he knew what they had done - and still, he moved towards them instead of yelling or getting rid of them. God always seeks relationship with us, no matter what we have done. Think of a time that you did something wrong. Perhaps you got upset with someone or said something mean. Even when we do something wrong, God always moves towards us in love wanting to work things out with us, instead of turning his back on us.

The original good design that God had for all creation was now broken. But God doesn't give up or get rid of Adam and Eve to start over. Instead, the Bible tells us the story of God's patient love - how over hundreds of years God patiently worked to step into the mess that had been made. Ultimately, God gave his only son, Jesus, to be born into our world to die for sin once and for all, and pay the price for all of us. through Jesus, anyone who believes in him can come to God without fear and have a restored relationship with God - and through this restored relationship with God, we can have a restored relationship with others, ourselves and creation.

As a child of God and member of God's family, we get to partner in God's important work to restore our world back to the original design. To restore something, you have to know what is broken. A ceramic restorer will look at these broken mug pieces and know what it should become. A painting restorer looks at a painting and knows that there are bright colors and details hidden under the layers of dirt everyone else sees.

What are some of the broken things you see in our world? (Invite children to respond. Write a list on a whiteboard or large Post-It.)

Examples:

• fighting / war
• broken families
• kids who are hungry
• homelessness
• bullying

Can you help me think about what God's design and desire is for each of these?(Write God's plan next to each listed item.)

Examples:

• fighting / war -> loving relationships
• broken families -> families together, supporting each other
• kids who are hungry -> every kid with enough food to eat
• homelessness -> every person with a safe place to live
• bullying -> people saying encouraging words to each other

Closing

Leader: So far we have learned that God is a worker and that we are made in his image. Being made in God's image means that we are also created to work. God invites us to join his work of restoring the world back to his original design where relationships with God, people, our own self and creation were not broken but whole and loving.

Let's pray. God, thank you for not leaving our world broken but coming to rescue and restore our world and each of us back to your original design. Thank you for letting us join you as partners in this important work. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen.

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