Light from Darkness – Creation and Lasers
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About the lesson:
You can teach your class about how God spoke into the darkness and created the light on the first day of creation. This exciting lesson uses laser pointers that are readily available and can actually POP BALLOONS. These even have a key on the back so they can be disabled. These strong lasers (more info below on what type and where to purchase them) are much more powerful than your cheap laser pointers and if trained steadily on dark balloons will pop them.
Practice with them to see their capabilities but you will find that the black ones pop the easiest and white ones will hardly pop at all. Sometimes dark blue or purple balloons will work as well, just try it ahead of time and make sure you use the exact same ones live that you use in practice.
What you need:
- Standard black round balloon (9″ or 12″ from Walmart, dollar store etc) – get 2 or 3 just in case
- Standard white round balloon (9″ or 12″ from Walmart, dollar store etc) – get 2 or 3 just in case
- Laser pointer (Red 301 model – 2 options below) – Around $9 dollars or so including batteries and charger
Preparation:
- Take the white balloon and push it completely inside of the black balloon but make sure that you don’t lose the mouth of the balloon in the process.
- Blow up the white balloon first. This will take some hard blowing because you are having to stretch out both balloons at the same time.
- Once you have the white balloon blown up approximately 6″ or more (it really doesn’t matter much how big it is), tie it off and put the knot completely inside the black balloon.
- Now blow a bit more air into the black balloon creating some space between the two balloons. You really don’t need much, you just don’t want the white balloon to pop along with the black one.
Lesson:
At the beginning of the bible, in Genesis 1:1 it says, that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
PULL OUT THE BLACK BALLOON THAT HAS THE WHITE ONE HIDDEN INSIDE
When God began, HE, God was the only thing in existence. There was NOTHING but God.
When I say there was nothing, I mean NOTHING. No earth, no sun, no stars. There was no light, nothing solid, no matter of any kind… just nothing. In fact, there wasn’t even what we know as “time”. Yes, before TIME itself began, God was there.
God’s ways are not our ways and so when we try to figure all of this out it just kind of makes our heads hurt. You may ask, what was happening before God began creation… well, there WAS NO “before”. There was not even “nothing”! There was only God existing in eternity. This is something humans, as finite created beings, can never really understand.
In Psalm 90:2 we read: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
God is the great “I AM.” He exists and always has. He was not created. In Revelation 1:8 we read, “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”
And then God decided to do something awesome. He decided that He would begin creating things… and so He did.
In John 1:1 it says, “In the beginning was the Word…”
God’s Word is SO powerful! It can create or change ANYTHING, including us…
PULL OUT THE LASER POINTER AND POINT IT WILDLY AROUND (OF COURSE NOT IN ANYONE’S EYES)
This laser pointer here is like the WORD OF GOD! When God’s Word begins to come out, LOOK OUT because ANYTHING can happen!
God spoke into the Darkness and said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”
WHILE YOU ARE SAYING THIS, TURN ON THE LASER POINT, HOLD IT AND THE BALLOON VERY STILL AND POINT IT AT THE BALLOON… THE BALLOON SHOULD POP IN JUST A SECOND OR TWO AND THE WHITE BALLOON POP OUT
And that is EXACTLY what happened! God’s Word spoke light in the darkness and that was just the beginning of creation. He created a WHOLE LOT MORE and we will talk about that another time.
What is really super exciting is that God can STILL speak light into the darkness!
From here you can go a whole lot of places, perhaps talking about how sometimes there are “dark” places in our lives but we are never alone. If we give our problems to God He can speak His Word and help us figure it all out. We need His Word, the Bible in every part of our lives.
Alternate lesson:
I have also used this lesson to teach about how the devil with try to mess you up at your weakest point or where you are most vulnerable. I take a white balloon and put a VERY VERY dark dot on it with a black permanent marker. You have to REALLY cover the area over and over until it is not transparent at all.
You train the laser point on the white part of the balloon and no matter how long you leave it there nothing will happen. The devil will try all kinds of things to mess you up but when he finally finds your weak spot, he will ONLY concentrate on that.
Put the laser pointer on the black spot and after a while, the balloon will pop.
Every single time I read your experiments, I get more and more excited! Always excellent stuff to keep the kids attention and teach them stuff that will stay in there memories for a lifetime! I even find myself crying when I read some of them. Definitely helps growing in the Lord! Thanks so much, you’ve got an awesome talent and I’m so glad that you share it with us Sunday school teachers! I even use allot of them in my in home daycare. The kids love them!
God Bless Much! ☺
You are so very kind and that means a whole lot! Thank you for taking the time to comment, it really makes it worth it to read things like this!