Activities That Display God's Holiness

Activities on God's holiness help children understand part of God's character.

Activities on God’s holiness help children in Sunday school and other Christian Education programs understand this often difficult concept. God’s character and personality are revealed through stories in the Bible and how he interacted with people throughout history. Understanding God’s holiness helps children grasp some of the more difficult things God requires of people, especially throughout the Old Testament.

Getting Ready for the Tabernacle

One of the things the priests of the Children of Israel had to do before entering the Tabernacle in the Old Testament was to be clean. Even the High Priest could not go into the Holy of Holies without a ceremonial cleansing. This was because God’s holiness could not allow a person to come into his presence without doing certain rituals. Take personal cleaning supplies to class and demonstrate hygiene practices before going to a special occasion. Demonstrate washing your face, combing your hair, brushing your teeth and applying make-up, while telling the story of the priest that had to prepare to go before God.

Take Off Your Shoes

When Moses stood before the burning bush on Mount Sinai in the Old Testament, one of the first things God said to him was to take off his shoes. This was because God was speaking to him through the burning bush, and God’s presence made the ordinary object and surrounding area holy ground. Moses was in the presence of God, and God did not want the dirt from his sandals make to the place unclean. For this activity, bring in a small, plastic child’s pool filled with sand to your classroom. Let the students walk and play in the sand for a few minutes before you begin to share the lesson. Then have the students wipe their shoes on a few white towels on the floor near the sandbox. Have students sit in a circle and show them the dirt on the white towel. Then compare that towel to a clean white towel. Talk about how God’s holiness is like the clean white towel. Let a few students take off their shoes and walk on the clean towel and talk about the difference between God’s holiness and the dirt from our shoes.

Meeting God at Sinai

When the Children of Israel left Egypt, they were going to worship God at Mount Sinai. Moses knew that the mountain was holy and God was holy, so God told Moses to have the people cleanse themselves for three days. No one was to touch the mountain or approach it, because they could not get that close to God. For this activity, have a rope or piece of string on the floor when the children come into the classroom. Have a big sign near the rope that say, “Do Not Cross.” Give each child a wet wipe and have them wash their hands while they stand on one side of the rope. Talk about God’s holiness and His holy mountain and why the Children of Israel had to cleanse themselves before they could worshiped God. Once all of the children have washed their hands, let them come across the rope and sit in a circle for the rest of the story.

The Fruit of the Spirit

In the New Testament, Galatians 5:22, the Apostle Paul talks about the fruit of the spirit, those things that will be displayed in the life of a believer as they learn more about God. One of the fruits of the spirit is goodness, which children can understand to be holiness. For this object lesson bring in three plants; one healthy and green, one faded and small and one completely dead. Ask your students what they think each plant had and didn’t have that caused it to either thrive or die. As children give ideas, write them down on a white board. Next to each idea for the plant, write down what people need in their lives to learn more about God and to grow in the fruits of the spirit. Compare things like sunlight, clean air and water to reading the Bible, praying and helping others.