Materials
A large opaque cloth sack in which you can place fruits (a dark colored pillow case works fine), and a variety of fruits that can be identified by touch (and maybe smell).
Here are some fruits you can use if available in your area:
Apple, Apricot, Atapi, Avocado, Breadfruit, Banana, Blackberry, Blackcurrant, Blueberry, Chempadak, Cranberry, Custard Apple, Cherry, Chiku, Clementine, Coconut, Date, Dragonfruit, Durian, Fig, Grapefruit, Grape, Guava, Jackfruit, Jambu, Kiwi, Kumquat, Lemon, Lime, Loganberry, Longan, Lychee, Mango, Mangosteen, Mulberry, Nectarine, Orange, Papaya, Passion fruit, Peach, Pear, Persimmon, Pineapple, Plum, Pomegranate, Pomelo, Rambutan, Raspberry, Quince, Satsuma, Snakefruit, Soursop, Starfruit, Strawberry, Tangelo, Tomato (yes it is a FRUIT), Wolfberry
Activity
Place all the fruits in a single bag. You should have as many fruits as possible but you can vary the number of fruits depending on the age of your group and the appropriate difficulty. If you wish to expedite this activity you might prepare several bags of identical items. Without looking inside the bag, have youth touch the items in the bag and then go back and write down all the items. Award kids who get them all correct or the most correct.
Variation
Blindfold the participants and ask them to identify and write down the various fruits according to the scent or give them a sample to identify by taste. You could also make a fruit salad and have youth identify the various fruits in the salad.
Application
Just as you identified by touch the presence of items that you could not see, we can identify the presence of God in the ways he touches our lives. Many times he uses other people to touch our lives. Even today, you may not see Jesus, but you know he is there and has other people to take care of you. Sometimes we cannot see, but we can smell or taste. Our spiritual gifts and our relationship with God can serve as a taste or smell to entice others to taste and see that the Lord is Good. (Psalm 34:8) Our lives can be the scent of life to others. (2 Corinthians 2:16)
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.
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