Parable of the Pearl (Matthew 13) | Story

 
Today’s parable is the parable of the Pearl

Essential Teachers notes:
This is a guideline on how to deliver you message. I’ve written it in story form but do tailor it to your group and teaching style. I have a box of beads for crafting and jewellery making but if you don’t have this, then try to improvise ~ you can often buy cheap plastic bead sets in toy shops. I also had a pearl necklace with a single pearl and a string of irregular shaped pearls to hand round. I hid one pearl bead in a separate box on the other side of the room.

This story is only around 30 words in the bible so you may want to get an older child to read it at the end of telling your own version.
Main Passage : Matthew 13
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(start by placing a pearl and a magnifying glass if you have one on the carpet where the children can see it)
Today we are going to look at a parable. Parables are stories with hidden messages. I wonder if at the end of the story you can tell me what the hidden message might be. What are these things we can see, perhaps they will give us a clue to what the story is. (Examine the objects you have put out already and then bring out your box)

Do you like my box. It’s a pretty box, and it looks like it contains something special. I wonder if you can guess what’s inside my box. (Open the box and let the children look at the contents, I laid them out on the carpet). This is my collection of beads. There are dark beads and light beads and beads of many colours.

The bible tells a story abut a man who collected beautiful beads a bit like these. He collected pearls. Pearls are very precious and look a bit like this. (Hand round some pearls). Some pearls are all sorts of strange shapes, and some pearls are round and beautifully shiny. The man in the story would travel round buying and selling pearls looking for the most perfect pearl. (Use your objects to act the story from now on.)

One day the man saw a special pearl. He looked at the pearl very closely, he held it up to the sunlight, he turned it round and round… the pearl was perfect. The man in the story knew that this pearl was what he was looking for and that he had to buy it.

The man went home and collected all his other precious beads and pearls and took them to the shop to buy the pearl but the shopkeeper said it wasn’t enough. So the man went home and sold everything in his home and returned to the shopkeeper, but it still wasn’t enough. The man took the keys to his house and gave them to the shopkeeper. Then the shopkeeper gave the man the perfect pearl.

I wonder, do you think the man was happy? I wonder if you know what the hidden message is in this parable? I wonder what the pearl really is in this story? I wonder what is so valuable that somebody would give up everything they had for it? (pause for discussion if you wish)

(optional – Jesus told this parable to show how precious being part of God’s kingdom is.)

Today’s parable is the parable of the Pearl