Before your students arrive, view this video in advance (DO NOT SHOW IT TO YOUR STUDENTS AT THIS TIME) and make a quick sample puzzle. Keep the solution a mystery for the students until Step 4 [2:02]:
Impossible Puzzle Trick
After your students arrive, show them the sample impossible puzzle, moving the flap back and forth and acting perplexed about the size of the flap and the size and placement of the opening. This cannot be possible! Or at least it looks like it is impossible.
Every day, all over the world, God’s people face impossible situations. Let’s hear the story of an impossible situation a young believer faced in India.
Read the following story out loud to your students:
“Sagrika comes from a Hindu family, but rural poverty has pushed her parents to send her to Back to Back, a home for poor children in Hyderabad [in India]… During a lesson about our “Amazing Creator,” Sagrika was faced with the reality of the true God. She put aside all her gods, whom she worshipped with her family, and decided to follow Jesus.
Practicing her faith in the security of a Christian setup is the easy thing to do. Sagrika was about to face a tougher test. The Pongal holidays (Hindu new year) were around the corner and Sagrika would have to go home. During the auspicious day there would be several rituals that she would have to perform with her parents and relatives.
At the festival she was forced to bow down and worship the Idols. She was asked to take part in the rituals…”
Hold up the puzzle and move the flap back and forth.
- If you were in Sagrika’s situation, how do you think you would respond to being asked to worship idols and participate in the rituals? (Answers will scared, nervous, willing to follow along with the rituals, eager to avoid getting in trouble, etc.)
“Sagrika refused and stood firm for the Lord. She told her parents, ‘These idols that you are worshiping are not real gods. I don’t worship them because I came to know the real God and He is Jesus.’ She went on to share the story of Jesus and she pleaded with them to stop worshipping other gods. For a young girl like Sagrika it was not easy thing to do…but she chose to stand firm in what she believed.”
Hold up the puzzle and move the flap back and forth.
Perhaps you have experienced or are facing something that looks impossible. Maybe it is passing a test or getting along with an enemy. Maybe it is a struggle at home.
Hold up the puzzle and move the flap back and forth.
- What situations or experiences in your life or the lives of others look impossible to you today? (Answers will vary.)
- What gives you the feeling that these situations or experiences are truly impossible? (Answers will vary. Some might comment that they haven’t seen miraculous outcomes in person, or that it is easier to believe bad things than good.)
- How do you feel when you are facing something that looks impossible? (Answers will vary but might include sadness, hopelessness, fear, etc.)
Joshua, the Gibeonites, and the Israelites were outnumbered against a strong alliance of five kings and their mighty cities. Survival for the Israelites looked impossible. Hold up the puzzle and move the flap back and forth. But when God is involved, we cannot base our estimation of the outcome on what we see or fear. Here is an account of how something that is impossible to man became possible when God is in it.
Story Source:
Sagrika stands by her convictions
