Children's Sunday School Object Lessons

Precious Gift of Time

by Mike

An Illustration to demonstrate how quickly time passes.

Materials:
75 Coins
Clear Plastic Sandwich Bag

Duration:
Approximately 10 minutes

Topics:
Accountability, Choices, Godliness

Target Age:
Grades 3 4 5 6

Preparation:
Before class obtain 75 coins and place them into the clear plastic sandwich bag.

What you will do:
Show the bag of coins to the children and ask them to guess how many coins are in the bag. If no one guesses the correct number, tell them that the bag contains 75 coins.

These coins have some monetary value but today we are going to use the coins to illustrate the passage of time.
An average person, in moderately good health, can normally live to be at least 75 years old. Many people can live quite a bit longer than this, but we will use 75 years as an average life span.

For each year we live, we will take one coin out of the bag. There are a limited number of coins in this bag, just as we will have a limited amount of time here on earth. None of us know exactly how long we will remain in our earthly bodies. During our time here on earth we can choose to use the time we have to follow God and lead lives that are pleasing to God or we can choose to lead lives that sadden God.

Our earthly life will last a short time, whereas our spiritual life will last for eternity. Eternity will be forever and without end, it will be limitless. We could fill this room from top to bottom with bags containing 75 coins and this would not represent even a dot on the timeline of eternity. We could fill this entire building with bags containing 75 coins and this would still not represent even a dot on the timeline of eternity.

Read 1 Peter 1:23-25. Yes our earthly lives are like blades of grass here today and gone tomorrow.

We have one of two choices, be wise and use the years that we have here on earth to live a life that is pleasing to God so that we can store for ourselves treasure in heaven that will last forever. Read Matthew 6:19-20

Or, lead our lives selfishly here on earth and reject God; only to spend eternity separated from Him.
Read Matthew 7:22-23

How you spend the years God has given you is up to you, but it would be foolish to selfishly grab a miniscule amount of time this side of heaven, only to be separated from God for eternity.