IDEA: To show youth what the Gospel means by using donuts.
SUPPLIES: 1 dozen glazed donuts; 1 Box of donut holes; 2 Red jelly filled pastries (they look like glazed donuts without the hole on the outside); Several paper plates; Maybe some food preparation gloves.
HOW YOU DO IT:
1. Start with six donuts on paper plates where the kids can see all of the donuts. Also have the other six donuts on plates out of sight, along with the holes and the pastries.
2. Read Mat. 22:36-40. Explain that we were made to be filled with God’s Love and to share that Love with others. These are the great commandments that the whole Bible depends on.
3. Hold up a donut. Say “we are like donuts. We have a hole in the middle that we long to fill up. We were designed to be filled with God’s Love.”
4. Using all six donuts, say: “We often try and fill up our holes by using other people for popularity, power, money, greed, sex, etc.” While talking, illustrate this by ripping off chunks of donut and stuffing it into the holes of the six donuts. The used, messed up donuts illustrate sin and what it does to our lives. Tell the youth this, and ask if anyone wants the donuts after they have been ripped apart. Most will say NO. Use as an illustration of how messed up we are in sin, when we try to fill ourselves up outside of God’s plan. We are good for nothing except throwing away.
5. Then say: “But God does not want to throw us away. He loves us and wants to heal us and bring us into His Love and His plan for our lives.” Then hold up one of the jelly filled pastries. This pastry represents Jesus – God’s only Son. He is perfect (no hole). Yet He gave His life and died for us so that we would not be thrown away (represent this by tearing the pastry in two, with red jelly spilling out). But He did not stay dead. He rose again from the dead to show us that there is hope beyond this world (bring up the second pastry, un-torn, to represent His resurrection).
6. Say: “If we trust in Jesus, we can be made new, and be forgiven of our sin and healed of our wounds”. Put away the first set of six donuts, and bring up the six new, un-torn donuts. This represents new life and a fresh start in Christ.
7. Say: “Now if we believe in Christ, we can be filled with His Love, and share His Love with others, and He will keep re-filling us with His Holy Spirit”. While doing this, use the donut holes to represent God’s Love and His Spirit. Fill the first hole with the donut hole, then give that hole to another, while refilling the original hole with another donut hole of God’s Love. By using the donut holes, you represent the fact that God’s Love is perfectly fulfilling (it’s a perfect fit), and that it is replenished as we give it to others. This is God’s perfect plan for creation.
After all that, you can eat the illustration, and talk about how to accept the Love of Christ, and how to give it to others.