Throwing rocks into a lake or the ocean, never to be seen again, will remind our kids how God deals with our sin when we ask his forgiveness . . . and how we should do the same for others.

On Your Own

Things You’ll Need

•Smooth-­surfaced rocks. They should be about the size of the palm of your hand so you have enough room to write on them, but not so large that they’re hard to throw. You can likely find rocks like this outside somewhere, perhaps on the shore of whatever body of water you choose to do this. You can also check with a pet store. Often, they have bags of smooth river rock meant for aquariums that work perfectly for this.

•Permanent marker (to write on the rocks)

Advance Prep

Find a good spot on the shore of a lake, river, pond, or ocean. A pier works terrific too. And be sure you have plenty of rocks for the kids to write on and throw. The rocks must be clean and dry before you can write on them.

With the Kids

Running the Activity

1. Ask the kids to think about their sins . . . things they’ve done wrong but maybe haven’t confessed yet. Or it could be something they did long ago, and they may have confessed it, but they still feel bad whenever it comes to mind.

2. Now, have them use the marker to write that sin on a rock. Once that is done, ask them to throw it into the water as far from shore as possible. You may want to demonstrate the first one. If the stones are flat, you may skip some across the water.

3. Have them repeat this procedure as many times as they want.

4. Once they’ve hit a lull and seem out of ideas, you may want to take this further. Now ask them to write ways that others have sinned against them. It could be friends, family, or really anybody. Ask if they’re willing to forgive those who did them wrong. If they are ready to forgive, have them throw those rocks out into the water too.

Don’t take too long on this before moving into the teaching time.

Teaching the Lesson

In Micah, a book in the Old Testament, there is a verse describing how God will forgive the sins of the nation of Israel. It gives us a great bit of insight into God’s nature when it comes to how he forgives.

You will again have compassion on us;

you will tread our sins underfoot

and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Mic. 7:19 NIV)

That word picture of hurling iniquities, or sins, into the depths of the sea is important. Think about how deep the ocean is, and picture God throwing our sins there.

So deep they will never surface again.

So deep nobody will ever find them.

That is the magnificent forgiveness he offers us when we confess our sins to him. The sins are gone. He won’t dig them up again and shove them in our faces. When God forgives, it is complete. Sure, there are still consequences for our sins. If we rob a store, we may go to jail—even though God forgives if we ask—­right? But when God forgives, he definitely takes away the eternal punishment we deserve for that sin. That’s huge! We need to let the reality of that sink in a bit. That truth should prompt some very important reactions in us.

•We should be joyful that our sins are forgiven, and we should love God more.

•We should be grateful that he has forgiven us so completely and desires we live in obedience to him.

•Out of that gratitude for what God did for us, we should be more willing to forgive others as God forgives us.

Summing It Up

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Ps. 103:11–12 NIV)

When we ask God to forgive our sins, he removes them from us completely—­as far as the east is from the west. He hurls them into the deep water, never to be seen again, like those rocks we just threw. Let’s be sure we’re living in gratitude for God’s great gift of forgiveness . . . and forgiving others the same way.

If the kids weren’t ready to forgive someone who had wronged them earlier, check back to see if anybody is ready to throw another rock into the water now.