Thought I might share this, since I only just found this section of the Café...

A few months back, I illustrated Cain's sin for the kids at our church, and it worked out really nice considering the simplicity.

Tools:
Thumb Tip
2x 9" red silks
1x LARGE silk, rolled up (to be palmed)

I talked about Isaiah saying that our sins were scarlet, and introduced a small silk. We discussed Cain's first sin and represented it with a 9". Then we talked about how Cain had a choice in how he responded to his jealousy, and how when we sin we also have a choice. Cain chose poorly, and added a second sin of murder (produce second silk from TT, diplay both, palm larger silk). Then explained the snowball nature of sin, and how if we don't deal with it early, things get worse and worse. Cain sinned by bringing the wrong offering to God, then through jealousy. He tried to cover his sin with another sin (murder).

Then I asked what might happen if we kept covering one sin with another, and flicked out the big silk (this is the bit that I still get comments on from the other leaders who were there, because they didn't expect this giant thing to fly out from my hand). Displayed all 3 silks and showed how they can separate us from God - how he still loves us, but we cannot be his close friends because there is something in the way.

Pocket the big silk and one small, and take them back to Cain's first sin to show what Cain SHOULD have done. Here's the application for today, so take the time to ensure they see that this is what they should do with sin too: Show that Cain could easily have brought his sin to God and said sorry, and how God takes our sins in his big loving hand and disposes of them. Silk into tip, tip on thumb, show bare hands and reinforce the hope that is ours!

There you go - It worked very nicely for me. Feel free to take and tailor (would work well for the David/Bathsheba tale too, wouldn't it?!)

Thanks for the routine! I changed this around a little and did use it for D and B. Worked great for the 8-10 year olds we had

C.J.,

I like it. Thanks for sharing this. Love the ending with Hope and Grace.

RevJohn