Make It Happen
- Preparation: Set up a living room space with tables (we typically use long rectangles with chairs along the outside). Cover with plastic tablecloths that will not be hurt by the hot glue and can be removed easily at the end of the night. Lastly, place patterns, scissors, hot glue guns, and paper around the table.
- Program:
- Open with prayer on the wonder of creation (see Help Section for “In Wonder” program booklet).
- Crafting and Discussion: While people are creating their flowers (the pattern we used is in the Help Section), take time to discuss the action of creating. Some questions you might ask:
- “How do you feel while you are making your flowers?” Please note that people are likely to have a range of emotions (sad, frustrated, happy).
- “Are you proud of what you made?” This is a great time to discuss how God must feel about his creation. Amazingly, even in our imperfection, God loves us!
- “How would you feel if someone destroyed your creation?” This opens up the discussion of the fall of man. A great follow-up is, “How must God have felt when humankind sinned?” I like to provide some resolution and keep the mood a bit more upbeat by reminding people of the plan for salvation, and bringing creation back into unity with Christ.
- Closing Prayer and Discussion on the Joy of Creation. (Again, see the Help Section for “In Wonder” program booklet.)
- Clean-Up
Ideas
- It would be very easy to add a service component to this project. Consider taking the creations to a local nursing home or to local shut-ins. Meals-on-Wheels or similar programs are often willing to deliver these crafts with their meals. Then, you could add into your discussion a component about sharing creation.
- You might also want to provide some simple drinks and snacks. This might encourage more fellowship and community building when the crafting ends.
Help
- “In Wonder” program booklet (PDF)
- Spiral Flower Pattern
- Another Easy Paper Flower pattern
- Look for different crafts on Pinterest
- God’s Creativity in Plain Sight blog post
- And an article about The Image of God and Creativity
- Earthsongs: Praying with Nature by Wayne Simsic
