Materials
Various objects from the store with the price tags on them.
Activity
Divide the class into several teams. Then display one of the items but with the price tag concealed. Each team must try to guess the price of the item without going over. The closest team to the actual price is rewarded a token, a one cent coin, or play money. Continue through all the items you have brought. Then have a package of candy or similar item that all the kids can share as a final reward. Allow kids to purchase the items using their tokens, coins, or play money. But set the prices impossibly high so that even if one team won all the tokens they still would not be able to get the final prize. When they have discovered it is impossible then give the prize to the class as a gift from you they can share.
Application
The Bible says it is impossible for us to reach heaven by our own efforts, but God gives us the free gift. The cost is too high. It cost God his one and only Son. Yet God gives us salvation as a free gift. All we have to do is trust in him.
Variation
Add some items for the price guessing that are sentimental in value. You could use a package of baseball cards, a special pokemon monster which is rare, a rare “Star Wars” figure, a rare collectible, or even one of the “hello kitty” dolls from McDonalds or “Muppet Babies” which were such a hit. While these items had a set price, there are people willing to pay much more. This is because the wish to complete their collection or because of the rareness of an item. Baseball cards may be only worth about 20 cents each, but some baseball cards can be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. They are just a picture on a piece of cardboard. Yet some people collect baseball cards and if they want a particular card, and there aren’t many of them, they may have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to get one. We can identify the worth of something by how much someone is willing to pay for it. Our salvation is priceless because we could not acheive it ourselves and because God gave that which was of greatest worth to him so that we could have salvation as a free gift. He gave us his life so that we might be saved.
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.