Title: Hold on to Jesus
Theme: To find your way in life, hold on to Jesus. Proper 8 (13) Yr. C
Object: Three blindfolds and a short piece of rope
Scripture: As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Luke 9:57-58 (NIV)
We need four volunteers to help with today's lesson. Who would like to help? (Choose four children to help.) Isn't it interesting that these children volunteered to help without even knowing what they were going to be asked to do? What if they were asked to do something very difficult? Or what if they were asked to do something dangerous? Well, don't worry. All they will be doing is playing follow the leader. That sounds pretty easy, doesn't it?
Who wants to be the leader? (Choose one of them to be the leader.) Now, the other three must get in a line behind the leader. Are you ready? Oh, wait, there is one more thing. We are going to put a blindfold on the ones who are going to follow the leader. (Put blindfolds on the three who are going to follow the leader.) Do you think that it will be easy to follow the leader? What if they bump into a chair or a door and hurt themselves? We wouldn't want that, would we? Well, here is what we are going to do. Here is a piece of rope. The leader is going to hold on to the end of the rope and each of the followers will hold on to the rope as well. As long as they keep holding on to the rope, they will be able to follow the leader.
One day, Jesus was walking along the road with some of his disciples when someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man doesn't even have a place to lay his head."
It isn't always easy to follow Jesus. Sometimes we are like the children who volunteered to help with the lesson today. We raise our hands and say, "I will follow you wherever you go" without even knowing what we are going to be called to do. We may find that we are like the children who are wearing blindfolds -- it isn't easy to follow the leader when we can't see the way.
What can we do? Jesus is holding out his hand. Just hold on to Jesus and he will guide you through the difficult days of your life. There is a song I like called, "Hold on to Jesus" by Erin O'Donnell that says it like this:
I wish I could protect you
from the worries of this life.
but if there's one thing I could tell you
it's no matter what you do
hold to Jesus, He's holding onto you.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending your Son to save us and to be our guide through life. We are holding on to Jesus. Amen.