3 Ways Into Sunday’s Stories for Children: Always Changing

Transfiguration Sunday

This is the last Sunday before we transition to the season of Lent. In the Gospel, Jesus takes three of his disciples to a mountain where they witness a change in Jesus. They also see a vision of two prophets with Jesus, who had come and died long before Jesus, and whose lives had changed the course of the Hebrew people. And then they hear, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Do you remember how the Epiphany season began?)  

Since we can’t see into the future, we don’t know now if our lives, or country, or world are in the midst of historic change. In many generations before us, some who were living felt that the world was changing or had changed a lot in their lifetimes. And it did. We are always changing. That is part of creation, part of life! However, sometimes change is so slow, or gradual, that we don’t notice it, or we notice it all of a sudden.

James, John, and Peter heard the urgency in the message from God. They saw Elijah, Moses, and Jesus together. They didn’t know what was coming, but they knew they needed to pay attention. And that is what we will do in Lent.

Print, fold, read, and color the story booklet.

1. Sing and Dance

Sing and dance along with Muppet friends: “Our love for you is the only thing that will never change!”

2. Play and Pray

Play Slo-mo Mirror. Pair up. Face each other. One person is the leader who starts with a relaxed, neutral facial expression, then very, very slowly changes their face to show a feeling that is clearly identifiable, like surprised, or angry, or happy. The other person “mirrors” the leader’s face. If you have a phone camera, take a before and after picture. 

Pray: Holy God, thank you for showing us who Jesus really is. Help us use our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts to learn from, and follow, Jesus. Amen.

3. Create

Check out some optical illusions. What do you see? On a piece of paper, with one color, draw a simple shape, or design, or even just a scribble. With another color, add onto your drawing to “transfigure” it into something else. With each addition, change to a different color so that when it’s finished you can see how each change helped to make the whole. For example, change a triangle into an animal, or a scribble into a forest, etc.