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Introduction:
The SEAL theme suggested for the second half of the Spring Term is ‘Good to be me’. The following outline is for an assembly and classroom follow-up on this topic and is based on the stories of Jesus about the lost sheep and the lost coin (Luke 15). Jesus tells these famous stories in response to criticism from the religious establishment that he is spending time with the undeserving and the lost causes of society (‘tax collectors and sinners’). Through the stories Jesus tries to startle them into realizing that everybody matters to God and is equally deserving of God’s love and attention. Christians believe that everyone is special and that no one is more valuable than anyone else, because God made us this way with unique gifts and personalities, which we must not devalue in ourselves or in others. The following presentation aims to open up these questions of self-esteem and respect for each others’ specialness, using the stimulus of these Bible stories.
Preparation:
Use the retelling of one of these stories from The Barnabas Schools’ Bible, the Good Shepherd (story 281, pages 248-249); both stories can be found in Luke 15:4-7 (the lost sheep) and 8-19 (the lost coin).
You will also need a special stone that you have found (perhaps on a beach) and which you keep hidden in a clean handkerchief in your pocket; finally have available a big basket with very many similar stones.
Development:
1. Following your ‘good morning’ to the school, suddenly look anxious and exclaim, ‘Oh dear, where has it gone?’ Explain that you had something important to show them all this morning but it’s not there anymore. Begin a frantic search in your pockets; in/under the table; on the floor; behind/near objects around you. Continue by asking the teachers perhaps to look in their pockets and then ask the children to look in their pockets or around where they are sitting. You might even invite some children up to help you search. Get everyone looking and include comments such as:
It’s terrible losing something, isn’t it? I’m sure I put it in… (a certain safe place) this morning . Has this ever happened to you? I hate losing things… and so on.
Eventually ‘discover’ the special stone that you were searching for, wrapped in a clean handkerchief in your pocket all the time. Express great relief!
2. Explain how this isn’t the first time you’ve lost this special stone. When you found it on the beach and decided to take it with you, it dropped out of your pocket very soon afterwards and you had to look for it among hundreds of stones on the beach. However, because you had previously noticed its shape, size, colour, texture and special markings, you had managed to find it again.
3. Now produce a huge basket of similar stones and drop in your stone, mix them up and then find it again! Challenge some children to come and do the same. They will need to choose a stone they like, get to know it well and then drop it back into the basket. Mix them all up and then challenge them to find it again!
4. Whenever there’s a great crowd of many similar things, it seems that it may be hard to find one individual item. It sometimes feels that way with people, too. When there are crowds and crowds of people, it might feel like you as an individual will get lost because you don’t really matter in such a large number, but that is not true. Each person, like each stone, is unique and special. It’s not the case that some are more important than others or that some don’t matter. Once Jesus had to teach people just this and he used two stories to do so.
Tell the story of the lost sheep (see ‘The Good Shepherd’ from
The Barnabas Schools’ Bible) and the story of the lost coin; both are from the beginning of Luke 15. The Good Shepherd went out of his way to find the sheep that had gone missing and the woman searched high and low to find the coin that she had lost.
N.B. There are two fun retellings of these ‘lost and found’ stories in The Gospels Unplugged - one as a poem and the other as a participatory story with the title ‘Mrs Littlebottom!’
5. In each of the stories there was someone who noticed and cared for the one that was lost. Christians believe that God notices and cares for us because each one of us matters. Each one of us is special. God wants us to know that it is ‘good to be me’ because God loves that ‘me’ and has things for me to become that only I can become.
6. When the shepherd went to look for the sheep, he knew what that sheep looked like. Sheep may look all the same to us but not to the shepherd! Similarly, when the woman went to look for her lost coin, she knew what that coin looked like. Copper and silver coins may seem all the same to us, but not to this woman!
In the same way, these stories remind us that each one of us is special and that we have special ways in which we will stand out in a crowd.
I wonder what it is that helps God recognize me in a crowd?
What good part of me will God spot today?
Which thing about you and me will God recognize when God looks for us?
I wonder, is it…
my smile… the colour of my eyes or hair… my height… my laugh… my voice… my name… my unique way of doing things… my ideas… my… (invite other suggestions of what can be special and good about each person)?
7. For a time of reflection at the end of the assembly, show a picture of a crowd of people. This could perhaps be a digital picture of the whole school taken on a different occasion.
Look at all these faces! So many children! They all look the same but of course they’re not. Each one is special; each one has a unique character and personality of which they can be proud.
I wonder what it is in me that God recognizes in a crowd?
I wonder what special things about which me I am most pleased?
I wonder what other people say are the best things about me?
I wonder which parts of me I want God and others to enjoy most today?
I wonder what are the special things about my friends that I like and that help me to recognize them?
Dear God,
Thank you for making me special.
Help me to let the good part of me be seen today.
Help me to enjoy the special way you have made me unique.
Thank you that I matter because you made me and love me.
Amen
Classroom follow-up:
1. How are we different and how are we the same?
Play a game of crossing the circle, when you call out:
We are all a jumble of some things that are similar to each other and some that are different, which makes us unique. Every one of us is special.
2. In groups, get the children talking to each other by asking them to imagine how they would recognize each other, if:
… it was so dark they could not see each other?
… if they were lost in a huge crowd?
… if they had to identify the other person from a piece of writing or a drawing they had done?
… if they had to identify the other person simply by some of the things that they owned?
Get the children to report back on what they have discovered about each other and how they recognize each other’s special characteristics. Sometimes other people can see what makes us special more easily than we can ourselves.
3. With older classes you could play a game in which you ask each of the children to write down three things about themselves that no one else will probably know, for example: some particular experience they have had in their lives, a special secret hobby or interest, some special possession, some secret taste. Mix up all these identity facts and play a game with the class of ‘Guess who this is?’; the idea is to learn more about how each of us is special and to value each other as a result.
4. Create a ‘Good to be me’ identity card for each child, using a series of unique pictures and words that celebrate each child’s specialness. Include for example:
5. The religious leaders to whom Jesus told the stories had clearly decided that God liked some people more than others. Jesus had to show them as starkly as possible that they were wrong. Everyone matters and everyone is worth bothering about.
In groups act out these stories and include some reactions and thoughts from, for example, the other sheep who were left behind and from all the friends and family of the woman, who had been watching her engaged in her frantic search.
6. Finally, talk about the stories from the point of view of the person who did the searching, namely the shepherd and the woman. Why do these two go to such great lengths to find what had been lost? I wonder what Jesus was saying about God from these stories? Why might this have been a surprise to his listeners then and maybe still is today?
If God thinks each one of us is worth bothering about, then how does that affect the way we treat other people? If the stories teach us that it is ‘good to be me’, it must also mean that is good to recognize the special good in all others, too.
