Children's Message: 3rd Sunday in Easter

​CHILDREN’S MESSAGE for Easter 3
Luke 24:36b-48, John 20:19-31
Theme: Belief
A strange thing happened to me this morning.  My bedroom is on the second floor, quite a ways up from the ground.  I got out of my bed, opened the blinds, looked out the window and there was a little boy and a little girl about your size flying by, with wings.  I quickly opened the window and asked, “Are you a fairy?”  
Do you believe I saw the boy and girl flying?  If I told you that they answered me, would you believe me?  
How about if I told you that I touched them, would you believe that it happened? (No)
The story I told you really didn’t happen.  But our Bible lesson today has a story that really did happen.

When Jesus’ special friends, his followers (we call them disciples) were gathered together, Jesus appeared to them.  At first they thought He was a ghost and they were very very scared.  They didn’t believe it could be Jesus.  They knew that Jesus had died.  But then Jesus talked to them.  He said,  “Peace be with you.  You don’t believe it is me?  Look at the marks on my hands and on my feet where I was fastened to the cross. Touch me.”  They did, and they believed that He was indeed Jesus.  How do you think these special friends of Jesus felt?  (They were so happy that Jesus, their special friend, was alive.)

The really cool thing is that Jesus is with us.  He loves us, just like he loved those special friends.  In fact Jesus loves us when we are scared, when we can’t imagine that he is with us, or when it feels like he is sitting right next to us.

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for loving us, even when we are scared, or lonely, or happy, or when we aren’t sure.  Help us to trust you as our Lord and Savior.  And the children of God say: Amen. 

Author: Georgia Girvan (presented April 1989, April 2015, April 2018)