A few weeks ago I taught on the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Fair enough, it’s probably a lesson that is covered in every curriculum known to man.
But I’m not much for average ‘curriculum’ stories. I want to keep kids excited about what I’m talking about so I can get their hearts tuned in to God. And saying “The Garden was big and really cool and it had lots of trees” doesn’t really sound that great, especially to an elementary kid.
So here’s what I came up with.
If I’m Adam standing in the Garden of Eden, looking at trees filled with food all around me that reminds me instantly of something from the 21st century.
A food court!
Some of them are gross, but some of them aren’t too bad. And what a great example of a massive amount of choices.
Adam and Eve are standing in a Garden chalk full of food. It would be like standing in the middle of world’s greatest food court and you could choose whatever you wanted. (And did I mention the food was free!)
The Garden of Eden was like a food court created by God!
[pullquote cite=”BetterBibleTeachers.com” type=”left, right”]The Garden of Eden was like a food court created by God![/pullquote]
And the only rule was Adam and Eve couldn’t eat from the pizza place over there in the corner, right? They could eat of any tree except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
When you talk about the Garden of Eden don’t be satisfied to describe it in terms your kids won’t be able to understand.
Instead bring the idea into our time into something we can all imagine, a food court!
While the actual Garden was not actually a food court that is not the point.
The point is, it’s hard for adults to imagine the Garden of Eden, much less kids. So compare the Garden of Eden to a food court, something we can all very quickly see in our mind’s eye.
This idea worked out well for me and I think the boys in my class especially got a kick out of imagining what they would choose to eat from the world’s greatest ‘food court’!
Have fun with this idea and let me know how it works from you. My email is nathan (at) betterbibleteachers.com
