Teaching God’s Big Plan to Sparklers

by Kyle Grindley

God’s Big Plan

Teaching in Sparklers has blessed me because, as a staff, we teach through the both Old and New Testaments, every 2 years. We have been using this curriculum since 2008, which means I am on my third lap teaching through the Bible with the Sparklers. Distilling dense Bible passages down to 10 minute lessons that 3-year-olds can understand has really helped me focus on the big overarching themes in the Bible. Going through the Bible like this has shown me two amazing things: God has a big plan, and we have an exciting role in His big plan.

The Bible is one unified story of God displaying His glory through redeeming His people. God made this plan in eternity past, and shared it with us in the Bible through 40 authors over more than a thousand years. God validated His word by writing history in advance, something only God could do. First Peter 1 says that Christ and His work were foreknown before the foundation of the world. God didn’t just predict history, but He planned the redemption of His people through Christ before creation. God didn’t interrupt history by sending Jesus, He orchestrated history to lead up to Christ in a perfect story about God’s glory.

We can see a concise picture of God’s glory when we look at God’s proclamation when He agreed to let His glory pass before Moses. God did not just say “I will let my glory pass before you,” He said “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.” (Ex. 33:19, emphasis added) God proclaimed that he is Lord and He is good. Time after time throughout redemptive history demonstrates this goodness-lordship couplet. God has the power and right to rule, thus He is “The Lord”, and motivated by His merciful goodness, He uses that rule to bless His people. God is committed to His glory, and the Bible is the story of God displaying His glory, showing the whole of His attributes by using His power for the good of His people, which results in praise from His people.

God has allowed us to join as willing participants in displaying His glory. We display the goodness and lordship of God when we trust Him. His goodness is on display because we trust that God will do what is best for us and keep His promises. His lordship, or sovereignty, is on display because we trust that He knows what is best for us and has the ability to accomplish it. God is worth our complete trust because He is completely good and completely in control.

Teaching God’s Big Plan

This February Sparklers is getting a lot of new kids, not quite doubling our numbers. To accommodate for the growth we are making some changes, trying to mix new ideas with our tried curriculum. One thing we are adding is a Bible outline to try to keep unity of God’s big plan from being lost amongst the many stories. These stories are testaments to God’s glory in and of themselves, but they are so much richer when woven in the context of God’s larger plan of redemption.

The outline we are going to try is based on a telling of redemptive history through a series of “kingdoms”; where a kingdom is defined as “God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule and blessing.” (A great summary can be found at davemiers.com; Kingdoms Summary). This struck me as a good way to digest and understand what God is doing throughout history because it specifically highlights His sovereignty in His “rule” and His goodness in His “blessing”.

The Big Picture Story Bible, by David Helm, is a children’s Bible that tells the Bible’s story through the lens of “God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule and blessing.” It describes the Bible as “a big book, about a big God, who keeps a big promise.” Teaching about our big God who keeps His big promise falls right in line with the current Sparklers curriculum. Helm’s adaptation for children omits the explicit “kingdom” terminology, while preserving the meaning behind it. We are taking a similar approach in Sparklers. The original alliterated titles were changed for more 3-year-old friendly titles, and the explicit “kingdom” references were dropped so the titles could be more descriptive and point directly to God.

As we teach through the Bible we will use this outline to show the Sparklers God’s plan for bringing glory to himself through saving us. It will also help them understand where each of the individual stories fit in this plan. Hopefully what they learn in Sparklers will feed a sense of wonder at the awesome God behind everything.

A Bible Outline for Sparklers

  • God’s Garden – God created the entire universe; the earth, skies, planets, and people. He put them in a garden where He cared for them. God also gave them a job to do (Gen 1:28), and a commandment (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were cast out of the garden, but God promised that this would not last forever (Gen. 3). God would send His Son to crush Satan and sin’s power (Gen. 3:15). Adam and Eve’s children continued to disobey God.
  • God’s Promise – God called a man named Abram out of idolatry (Gen. 12, Josh. 24:2-3) and promised him that He would make him the father of a great nation and all the nations would be blessed because of him (Gen 12 & 15).
  • God’s Nation – After 400 years God’s promise of a nation began to take shape. God called Abraham’s descendants out of Egypt, gave them His commands, and promises to be their God and make them His people if they obey him (Ex. 19, Lev 26, Deut. 11). God proved faithful in spite of their unfaithfulness.
  • God’s Kings – God established His kings as representatives over His people. He promised David that one day one of his sons will rule on David’s throne forever (2 Sam. 7). However, Solomon turns his heart away from God (1 King 11).
  • God’s Punishment & Prophets – Because the people had turned their hearts away from God, He punished them (by splitting the kingdom, then sending Judah to exile). God did not forget His people, He sent prophets to tell the people to turn back to God so they could receive His blessing again. They also told about God’s promise to send a savior.
  • God’s Son – Just as God has promised, He sent a savior to crush sin’s power. That savior was His son, Jesus, who is both God and man. Jesus showed that He was God through signs and miracles, and teaching God’s Word. Jesus perfectly obeyed God, died, and rose again defeating sin’s power for those who believe in Him.
  • God’s Church – Jesus went to sit at God’s right hand, but He sent the Holy Spirit to be with His people, those who trust in Him. God’s Word spread to people all over the world including us.
  • God’s Kingdom – After God gathers all His people in His church, Jesus will come again to reign on David’s throne forever, just like God promised. God will take all His people to live with Him in heaven under His perfect rule, where they will experience His perfect blessing.

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