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God looks at the heart: Litmus Paper craft and object lesson (1 Samuel 16:7)

The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)



This verse is a really useful one to use with children when you are helping them to think about who they are as children of God.  In times of peer pressure and social expectations, it can be really helpful to know that God looks at us through different eyes and sees our value and gifts even when others don't seem to.

This craft is deigned to help children explore ideas around the difference between what people might see on the surface and what God knows about us and uses something that takes me back to my school science days!

You will need: A book of Litmus paper strips (1 bought a book of 80 for less than £1 online), heart shapes drawn on paper, glue, various liquids (safe ones for children to touch! e.g. hand soap, washing up liquid, lemon juice, water, milk, different drinks.


Let children experiment with touching one of the strips to a certain liquid.  Each liquid will have a certain PH and that will turn the strip to the according colour.  You don't know what colour you will get until you test it and the colour of the strip/ liquid is no indicator of what colour the paper will change to.  You can't judge just by what you see on the surface and hopefully there will be some element of surprise for the children (maybe they could predict the colour before testing)!

Talk about:
  • Could you tell what colour the strip would change just by looking at the liquid?
  • what can't you tell about someone just by looking?
  • what would someone not know about you just by looking at you?
  • what does it mean to look at someone's heart?
  • what would you like God to see in your heart?
Pray

Get the children to place their test strips into a heart shape.  Pray for those things they would like God to see in their hearts (they might want to write them on the strips) and ask God to help them to see people's hearts rather than just judging by appearance.


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