Elijah and the Ravens

Five-minute object lesson

Prop: a paper raven and a cracker

Hold up a paper raven and a cracker. In about five minutes, tell the class this: God hides Elijah by a brook and sends ravens with bread, then cares for a widow and her son. Show the prop and ask, “What does this have to do with Elijah and the Ravens?” Let two children answer. Then read Psalms 37:25 together: “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.” Close by asking one child to say the lesson back in their own words, using the prop.

Story script

Elijah was a prophet in a time when many people had turned to a false god. God told him to go hide by a brook east of the Jordan. “You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food.”

Ravens are not famous for sharing. Morning and evening they brought Elijah bread and meat. It was a strange grocery service and a clear lesson: God can use anybody, even birds, to take care of his servant. When the brook dried up, God did not forget. He sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath.

The widow had only a little flour and oil, enough for one last meal with her son. Elijah asked her to trust God and bake a small loaf first. She did. The jar of flour was not used up, and the jug of oil did not run dry, day after day.

God’s care sometimes looks like a brook, a bird, or a nearly empty jar. If your family is waiting or worried about enough, you can pray and also do the next small obedient thing. God knows how to send provision in ways you would not invent.

Open the bedtime version