The Bible uses a lot of symbols and metaphors from nature to explain spiritual truths. In this outdoor Bible study, you’ll identify some objects along a nature trail and ask the youth to make a list of everything they spot along the trail. These lists will then be used to discuss various scripture passages. It’s great for any season, but especially for summer!
What You Need
- Bibles
- An outdoor location with some nature. It can be an actual trail through a park, wilderness or natural area or it can be any path designated path. It could be a path along a sidewalk, a bike trail, a biking trail, or even the area between two trees, two designated landmarks, or even flags planted in the ground. All you need is a predefine starting location and a predefined end point.
What to Do
- Guide the youth to walk along the trail route and to carefully write down everything that they see of interest.
- When you reach a predefined destination or stopping point along the trail, lay out a blanket or groundsheet and have the youth share the things they discovered along the trail.
- Ask youth what lessons they could learn about God from what they found, aside from the obvious of God being the Creator.
Scriptures
Here are some common items found along just about any trail
- Animals, birds – Acts 10:9-16
- Ant – Proverbs 6:6, 30:25
- Bees – Deuteronomy 1:44
- Birds – Matthew 6:25-34
- Birds, foxes – Matthew 8:20
- Branch – Psalm 4:2; Isaiah 11:1; John 15
- Bush – Exodus 3:2
- Chicks, Hen – Matthew 23:37
- Coin – Luke 15:9
- Deer, water – Psalm 42:1
- Egg, scorpion – Luke 11:12
- Feathers – Psalm 91:4
- Flower, Grass, Dust – Psalm 103:14-16
- Flowers – Matthew 6:27-29
- Garbage – Philippians 3:8
- Gnat – Matthew 23:44
- Path, seeds, weeds, trees – Matthew 13:1-23, 24-29, 31-34
- Rock – Psalm 18:2; Matthew 16:18
- Rocks – Luke 19:40
- Roots – Job 29:19
- Sand – Matthew 7:24-27
- Sparrows – Luke 12:6
- Stone – Acts 4:11
- Trees, Leaf – Psalm 1
- Trees, stones – Luke 3:9
- Vine – Jonah 4:6-11; John 15
- Wild Flower – James 1:10
Take it to the Next Level
If any of the objects are mentioned, you can assign the person who mentioned it to look up the scripture verse. You can also simply share some of the things you noted along the trail and reference the read the scripture verses together.
Make it Spiritual
- How are these objects used in the Bible? What do they mean?
Make it Practical
- Why do you think God uses objects from nature in the Bible as symbols and metaphors for spiritual truths?
Make it Personal
- Which symbol or object had the biggest impression on you? Why?
- What lesson from this nature walk can you apply to your spiritual walk this week.
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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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