A Room on the Roof

Five-minute object lesson

Prop: a small blanket

Hold up a small blanket. In about five minutes, tell the class this: A woman in Shunem builds a small room for Elisha, and God meets her family with kindness. Show the prop and ask, “What does this have to do with A Room on the Roof?” Let two children answer. Then read Hebrews 13:2 together: “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Close by asking one child to say the lesson back in their own words, using the prop.

Story script

Elisha often traveled through a town called Shunem. A wealthy woman noticed him and urged him to stay for a meal. She told her husband, “This man of God comes by regularly. Let’s make a small room on the roof and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp in it, so he can rest whenever he comes.”

It was simple hospitality: a bed and a lamp. Elisha wanted to thank her. She had no child, and that sorrow was quiet and deep. Elisha promised that by the next year she would hold a son. The promise came true.

Later, when sorrow visited the house again, the woman went straight to the man of God, and God showed mercy. The story begins, though, with furniture on a roof. She made room before she knew how God would answer.

You may not have a rooftop, but you have a place at a table, a chair you can offer, or a kind welcome at church. Hospitality says, “Rest here.” God loves that sentence, and he often does more with it than we planned.

Open the bedtime version