Here’s how you can share Jesus with your children this Halloween. See below for a printable.
NEED:
- Medium to large pumpkin
- Knife
- Large spoon
- Candle and matches or a battery-operated tea light
If you have young children, you might want to prep all parts of the pumpkin ahead of time to make it easier to teach the lesson. If you have older children, they can help you with the following steps.
PREP OR DO TOGETHER:
- Cut a hole in the pumpkin and clean out the insides but save back a little goo
- Cut a face with eyes, nose and a smiling mouth
- Save the pieces and put them back in the pumpkin so it looks like it hasn’t been cut
- Wash off a few clean seeds and set them aside
- Put the goo back inside and put the top on
THE PUMPKIN GOSPEL STORY:
Once there was a Gardener who planted seeds in His garden. (show clean seeds)
Each day, the Gardener cared for the seeds. He watered them, pulled weeds from around them, and sheltered them from the heat of the sun. The seeds grew into seedlings, which grew into plants, until one day, they produced fruit—PUMPKINS!
The pleased Gardener looked out at His garden and said, “It is GOOD.”
One day, the Gardener went out into his field and picked a special pumpkin. (set out pumpkin with uncarved side facing the children)
It was a bit dirty from laying in the garden, so he brought it inside and gently wiped it off. (wipe off the outside of the pumpkin)
Now the pumpkin looked clean on the outside, but what about the inside?
The Gardener took a knife and cut open the top of the pumpkin. (pretend to cut and take off the top)
And what did he find? A bunch of slimy, yucky goo! (show the kids the goo and let them touch)
The Gardener wanted his special pumpkin to be beautiful so he carefully scraped out all of the good inside the pumpkin until it was as clean on the inside as it was on the outside! (Remove the goo and show children the clean insides).
But the Gardener still wasn’t satisfied with the pumpkin. He decided it needed a face! So, he carefully cut two eyes, a nose and a big smiling mouth. (Turn the pumpkin to reveal the carved side and pop out the eyes, nose and mouth)
Now the Gardener’s special pumpkin looked clean and happy! But the Gardener still wasn’t satisfied with the pumpkin. So, he put a light inside of it. (Put lit candle inside)
The pumpkin glowed so beautifully! The Gardener’s special project was complete.
When friends and neighbors saw the Gardener’s special pumpkin, they marveled at how he took something ordinary from his garden, cleaned it inside and out, put his light inside of it and made it something extraordinary!
WHAT THE PUMPKIN GOSPEL MEANS FOR US:
We are like pumpkins and God is the Gardener. God creates us and cares for us. He chooses us from all of the other pumpkins and calls us special. But, inside of all of us, we have yucky goo, too called sin. (Romans 3:23 and 6:23)
Just like the Gardener cleaned out his pumpkin’s yucky insides, God wants to clean out all of our sin, our yucky insides. He sent his son Jesus to die for our sins so that we can be clean. (Romans 5:8, John 3:16, 1 John 1:9)
Just like the Gardener gave the pumpkin a new face, God makes us new, too! The Bible says that we are called a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
And just like the Gardener put his light into the pumpkin to make it shine, so God gives us His light to shine through us! (2 Corinthians 4:6, Matthew 5:16)
We are special to God. He wants to clean us through Jesus and put his light inside of us so we can shine his goodness to the world. All we need to do is tell God that we believe he has the power to do that and give our lives to him.
Let your children ask questions and then close with prayer.
