Introduction:
When Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son the father embraces the lost son and gives him a place in his heart. The heart of the eldest son is full of resentment. There is no place for the younger brother in his heart! Therefore he struggles with finding his own place in the heart of the father. In the Lord's Prayer Jesus teaches his disciples to forgive others as the Father has forgiven us. But like the eldest brother in Jesus' story we sometimes struggle with forgiveness. Expecially as adults!
But how do you make this struggle visual? How do we teach the children and ourselves the importance of forgiveness? The importance of opening our hearts again for the person who has hurt us in the past? We think the Matryoshka doll is a great visual tool to do just that!
In the video below we will show you how you can use a Matryoshka doll to tell the story of the prodigal son and to teach forgiveness in a preach, in Sunday school, in a RE lesson, a children's moment in church, a school assembly, anywhere...
When we bought this Matryoshka doll it was plain wood, so we painted it ourselves to make it more visually appealing. You can buy your own set of plain Russian dolls here on Amazon.com and here on Amazon.co.uk.
Themes:
Forgiveness, the Lord's Prayer, opening our hearts for the one who has hurt us, the eldest brother in the story of the prodigal son, two brothers, the father heart of God