submitted: Robert Shaw

Scripture: 1 Cor 1:22

Preparation: Create stickers for each child with the words "I belong to God."
    Begin by asking about the movie "Toy Story".  Recall how the boy Andy and marks all his toys with his name on the bottom of the toy.  The mark means that the toy belongs to Andy.
    Ask about how we are given a seal that we belong to God.  ==> Baptism.
    Offer to put a sticker on the foot of each child’s shoe as a reminder that they belong to God.

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submitted: Catherine Buchan

This talk can be used to explain about baptism, or to talk about John the Baptist.
Show a Passport.  When do we use them?  We use them when we are crossing from one country to another.  If you have interesting visas, you could let the children see them – or laugh at your picture.
You may want to tell something of the history of passports – if the children aren’t too young.
History – Nehemiah’s letter of passage from King Xerxes is the oldest recorded – In the Middle Ages they were letters saying which cities (gates=ports) a person might travel through – not sea ports which were open to all.  Fell out of use in 19th century.  After WWI, because of fear of spies, they became more common again.
     When God s people passed from one country to another they went through the river.  Tell story of crossing into the Promised Land, where they could start a new life as God s people.
     When John the Baptist came to tell people that Jesus was coming he took them to the river as well.  He baptised them (explain).  They were saying that they wanted to start again with God, and live his new life.
     Jesus came to give us new life.  If we have been baptised it is as if we have been given a passport, which allows us to pass from living for ourselves to living for God.

Only suitable if your baptismal font has eight sides!

Bible Link: I Peter 3: 18-22

Do you know how many sides the font has?  Let’s count them…  1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.  It’s an eight sided font – so it’s an….   OCTAGON.   Many fonts have eight sides… and remind us of Bible story about 8 people…
Noah, his wife, Mrs Noah!, and their three boys: Shem, Ham and Japheth – and they had wives…  so 8 in all…  God saved them from the waters of the flood…  and Noah did what God asked…

appropriate at Baptism…

Multimedia: could show the clip from the beginning of the film The Lion King

"The Lion King." – perhaps dated now!  But maybe still useful illustration for use at baptism… .  At Simba’s birth he is held up for all the animal kingdom to see. The wise monkey, Rafiki
"baptises", Simba. Mixing some concoction in a half coconut shell,  Rafiki then places his thumb in the concoction and then makes a mark across Simba’s head.
Simba is marked forever.

Later and following Mufassa’s death, Rafiki suggests that Mufassa is in fact still alive and can show Simba.  He takes him to a pool of water… Look… but that is only my reflection says Simba.  Look harder… Simba sees his father in the reflection.  Rafiki reflects: See your father lives in you Simba.
Our lives reflect our Father God.

"And the sign and seal of the Holy Spirit shall be placed upon her"