Dreams & Wishes, a message for children and all ages

Preparation:
Print all 4 images:
Image 1: Abram, Sarai and Nicodemus
Image 2:  Wish 1
Image 3: Wish 2
Image 4:  Wish 3

Attach each image to thick card, so it is sturdy and easy to hold up for all to see.
Print up the scripts and attach to the back of each image’s card, so it is easy to read while you hold up the image.

Scriptures: (lections for Lent 2, Year A)

• John 3:1-17 – story of Nicodemus  (also lection for Trinity Sunday, Year B, when you could focus on Nicodemus and omit mention of Abram and Sarai)
• Genesis 12:1-4

Text:

for Image 1:

In our Bible readings today we have three people with wishes and dreams.  Who do you see in the picture?  [Abram, Sarai – , and Nicodemus]  Abram and Sarai are husband and wife and their wish is to know what God wants for them.  So they pray and listen to God.  And Nicodemus’s wish is to understand Jesus’s teachings about living in the spirit, and to know what God wishes for him, so Nicodemus listens to Jesus to find out what God’s wish is for him.

Have you ever made a wish?  I wonder who else makes wishes…

For Image 2:  ‘Wish number 1’

Your parents wish things for you.  What is a wish that your parents, your mum and dad, have for you?
Any ideas?
How can you find out?  [You can ask your mum and dad, can’t you?]

For Image 3: Wish number 2

What wish do you have for yourself?  Maybe in the next month?  Or before the end of the year?
Any ideas?
How can you find out? …  [You can just think of it.]

For Image 4: Wish number 3

What wish might God have for you?
Any ideas?
How can you find out?
– Pray
– Listen – to others; listen to God
– Talk to other people, especially at church

Many of us are surprised what wishes God has for us.

Pray with me.  God, thank you for blessing us with wishes and dreams.  Help us pray and listen like Abram, Sarai and Nicodemus, so that we can learn what your wishes are for us.  Amen.