Preteen Object Lesson: Jesus Talks With Peter

In this preteen object lesson, kids discover God’s lovingkindness as they poke holes in bags of water and watch the water stay put.

Scripture: John 13:31-38; 18:15-18, 25-27; 21:15-25

Supplies:

• 2-quart or gallon-sized resealable bags (1 per child)
• new pencils, freshly sharpened (3 per child)
• large bowl
• water

Easy Prep:

Fill the bags 2/3 full of water, leaving air in the remaining 1/3.

Preteen Object Lesson

Give each child a bag and three sharp pencils. Hold up one of the bags by gripping the top seal.

Say: Right now, this bag is a container whose job is to hold the water inside without leaking. But what happens if we poke pencils through the bag? Can it still do its job?

Have kids form pairs. While one partner holds the top of the bag, the other will take one of the sharp pencils and quickly poke it all the way through both sides. Make sure some of the pencil sticks out of each side. The bag will seal around the pencil and it won’t leak.

Say: That’s one pencil. But Peter denied Jesus three times. Can you poke three pencils through the bag without making it pour water everywhere?

Instruct the kids to quickly poke two more of their pencils through their bags, making sure the pencils don’t touch each other, and see if the bag leaks.

Then have kids trade roles and repeat the process with the second bag and additional three pencils.

Discussion

Ask:

• What surprised you about this experiment?
• Should Peter’s mistakes have ruined his friendship with Jesus? Why or why not?
• Tell your partner about a time you messed up in a friendship. Share your own example first.

Say: Despite Peter’s friendship failures, Jesus still believed in Peter. And even when we fail, Jesus believes in us. We all make wrong choices at times, but we can tell God we’re sorry and he’ll forgive us. God can still work through us to do big things. And we can never mess up so badly that God stops loving any of us. We haven’t ruined our chances to follow and have a friendship with God, just like all those pencils didn’t ruin the bag! It held strong and so does God’s love for us.

When finished, open the bags and pour the water into a bowl, and then remove the pencils.

This preteen object lesson comes from Sciency-Fun WOWS!: 54 Surprising Bible Object Lessons (ages 8-12). This book is full of memorable, Bible-related object lessons from DIG IN Sunday school that will stick with your kids for years to come. Plus, it’s available for kids ages 3-7! Looking for even more object lessons? Check out these posts!