Flashlights and Fireflies: Devotions for Kids and FamiliesSample

Ask Everyone:

• Do you like to know secrets? How good are you at keeping them?
• Have you ever told someone about God who didn’t know about Him? If you haven’t yet, what would you want to tell them?

Devotional:

Once there was a little girl who had a secret. She was so full of secrets, even her name was a secret. The Bible never tells us what she was called!

What do you think her name could have been?

This little girl lived far from her home and her family . But even far from home, she kept her faith in God and remembered how He loved her. She was a house helper for a man named Naaman, the army commander for the King of Aram. Naaman was very good at his job but he was also very sick—he had a disease called leprosy.

In those days, no medicines or cures could help someone with leprosy. They grew terrible rashes on their skin and lost the ability to feel their fingers, toes and other parts of their bodies. While he was a brave person, Naaman was afraid he would die from his disease.

The little girl who helped in Naaman’s house decided to tell one of her secrets. She told him, “Where I came from, there is someone named Elisha who is a prophet of God. God does miracles through him, and he can cure you.” She must have been a very honest and helpful girl because Naaman believed her and went right away.

But because Naaman was a very important person, he wasn’t used to people helping him or giving him gifts. So, he brought all the gold he could carry to pay for his healing miracle!

Do you think if you had lots of gold you could buy yourself a miracle? Why or why not?

But as powerful as the King of Israel was, he couldn’t do a thing to help Naaman. Elisha, on the other hand, could. He was set apart by God to be a prophet and sometimes did miracles when God told him to. These miracles showed people what God was like.

Elisha told Naaman what he had to do to be healed. Forget the gold, forget being important and forget what other people think of you; go swimming seven times in the Jordan River instead! Do a cannonball! Make a splash!

At first, Naaman wouldn’t believe it. This all seemed so silly to him. This isn’t something an important person should have to do!

But eventually, Naaman was persuaded, and sure enough, when he came out of the river after the seventh time, he was completely healed! He decided right there that he would only worship the God who had healed him. The faith of the little girl was now his faith too!

God changes people when they put their faith in Him, and faith can spread like light through the darkness. Sometimes, whole fields of fireflies will begin to blink in unison; they are all watching each other and shining on rhythm. Isn’t that amazing? Just like fireflies, we can 'shine’- our faith can inspire others to have faith too!

Jesus taught that children’s faith can even change adults — and that’s no secret!

Activity:

If you can access a firepit, consider choosing tonight to roast marshmallows (or slices of pineapple sprinkled with a little cinnamon!). Talk about the way that light changes things. Plants and trees take a new shape as they grow towards the light; shining a flashlight on your face at different angles can make your face look different—try it out!

Discussion Questions:

• Does God ask us to pay for His gifts to us? What does God give us?
• How does faith spread to other people?
• How does faith change people? (This is a great time for adults to share their own faith story.)

Prayer:

Dear God, thank you for giving us faith in you and your power. Thank you that you can help us to trust you, and receive your free gifts, just like Naaman had to trust that his miracle was free. Help us to share who you are and how faith in you has changed us so that others can be changed, too. Amen.