So what does the story of Naaman have to do with Easter, you might wonder? Well, first, you might wonder what the story of Naaman is—I know I had to look this one up before teaching!
Naaman’s story is shared in 2 Kings 5. Naaman was a high-ranking general in the land of Aram, but he suffered from leprosy. His wife had a servant girl who had been taken from Israel, and she told Naaman he should go to Israel and speak to Elisha, a prophet who could heal him. As the Jesus Storybook Bible points out, the servant girl must have hated Naaman for taking her from her home, but instead she forgave him and wanted to help heal him.
The short version is that Naaman went to Elisha, who told him to wash 7 times in the dirty Jordan river, and he would be healed. Naaman was too proud at first, but eventually he listened and did as Elisha said, and when he came up after the 7th time, his skin was smooth as a baby’s. God healed both his skin and his heart with forgiveness and mercy.
At this time of Easter, we remember the ultimate sacrifice God gave to heal us of our sins, to heal our hearts with forgiveness and mercy. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
God did all the work. God came to earth and became a man so that He could die and conquer death for our sakes. God’s grace and mercy saves us; all we have to do is have faith—trust that he did what He said He did and is who He says He is—and we are saved. There is nothing we can do to compare to what He has already done.
Now, like Naaman, we can be healed inside and out through God’s forgiveness.
To help bring this rather difficult concept home, we did two crafts with the kids.
After the video, I passed out blank faces (found at Sparklebox) to match each of the kids. They got to draw their own face onto it (or as close as possible 😉 ). Then I put each face into a clear page protector and gave the kids a dry-erase marker. They drew and dotted all over their own face to symbolize their sin.
Then to symbolize asking for forgiveness from God, I gave them the eraser to wipe off the sin!
For the second craft, I cut out red and pink hearts. I gave each kid a heart and told them to rip it up, which was pretty easy with the fold line down the middle. Then I gave them the word patch “God Heals With Forgiveness” and they glued the heart back together!
This was Bean’s. It may not be exact, but he did it himself! 🙂
God really does heal our hearts, and we should strive to live in reaction to the mercy and grace lavished on us. We don’t deserve it. We are still sinful, and we will continue to be until we leave earth and join our merciful God in heaven. But every time we rip our heart, God comes with that patch and forgives us. Again and again.
Isn’t that incredible? Isn’t that worth celebrating this Easter season? I think so.