Miracles

An assembly from the Culham St Gabriel archive

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To encourage a sense of awe and wonder in the natural world and in God’s work.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a YouTube video of a reading of Walt Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 5.58 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90wRZLBMoo4
  
  
• Optional: you may also wish to show the YouTube video ‘Fantasia 1940 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Walt Disney Cartoon Movie’, which is 3.49 minutes long and available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrm8usaH0sM
  
  Note: the video stops before the end of the story in the book. It would be better to use the complete film of Fantasia and find the appropriate section.
  
  
• You will also need a children’s Bible version of the story of Jesus healing the centurion’s servant, which is found in Luke 7.1-10. Alternatively, be ready to tell the story yourself.

Assembly

1. Show the YouTube video of a reading of  Walt Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
   
   
   
   Optional: show the YouTube video ‘Fantasia 1940 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Walt Disney Cartoon Movie’.
   
   
2. Now, read from the Bible or tell the children the story of Jesus healing the centurion’s servant, which is found in Luke 7.1-10.
   
   
3. Point out that both of these stories are pretty exciting and amazing, but there are huge differences between them. See if the children can suggest what those differences might be. (If the only suggestions are that one is about a mouse and one about people, move on!)
   
   
4. Explain that the story with Mickey Mouse is a make-believe story and what happens to Mickey Mouse in that story is magic. The story about Jesus is very different: it really happened. Jesus did not use magic to do amazing things, although the things he did often seemed magical. Instead, God gave Jesus the power to do amazing things to help people. The special things that Jesus did are called miracles. Jesus performed many miracles when he was on Earth.
   
   
5. Ask the children if they can think of any other miracles that Jesus performed.
   
   Listen to a range of responses.
   
   
6. Remind the children that Christians believe that there were many miracles before Jesus came to Earth. They believe that God created the world, which really is a miracle, full of wonder and variety.

Time for reflection

We may think that we have never seen an actual miracle, but really we see them every day.

Ask the children to think of miracles that we come across every day.

Listen to a range of responses.

Examples could be the sun coming up each morning, the world continuing to spin, the flowers in all their variety and beauty, the weather, the fact that we keep breathing, our families, our friends and so on.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for all the wonderful things that we see around us.
Thank you for the wonder of the world.
Thank you for the stories in the Bible, which remind us that God can do anything.
Please help us to be part of the wonder of the world, as we care for others and help them to have happy lives.
Please be with all of the people in the world who are sad, hurt or lonely.
Thank you.
Amen.

Song/music

‘All things bright and beautiful’ (Come and Praise, 3)

Follow-up ideas

Read and act out more miracle stories from the Bible, such as the following:

- Jesus makes a lame man walk (Mark 2.1-12 and Luke 5.17-26)
- Jesus calms the storm (Matthew 8.23-27, Mark 4.35-41 and Luke 8.22-25)
- The feeding of the 5,000 (Matthew 14.13-21, Mark 6.30-44 and Luke 9.10-17)
- Jesus heals a blind man (John 9)