Treasure in Heaven
An assembly from the Culham St Gabriel archive
Suitable for Whole School (Pri) - Church Schools
Aims
To consider that there is amazing reward in caring for other people.
Preparation and materials
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You will need a collection of different money boxes. You may wish to ask the children to bring these to school.
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You will need an image of a treasure chest and the means to display it during the assembly, available at: https://tinyurl.com/5yeu8v5u
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Optional: you may wish to have small pieces of paper and pencils available for the children.
- Optional: you may wish to display images of people performing good deeds.
Assembly
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Show the image of the treasure chest.
Imagine having so much money that you needed a chest THIS big to keep it in! In medieval times, King John had a chest full of money like this. It was so valuable that he carried it around with him everywhere he went. Well, not him on his own, but an army of strong men whose job it was to protect the king's wealth. I wonder what he did with all that money. Built castles? Recruited armies to fight in wars? Lived a luxurious life? Whatever it was, it seems unlikely that he used it for the good of his people. -
What would you do with lots of money? Imagine if all of these money boxes were full. What would you spend the money on? Yourself? Your friends? Other people?
And HOW would you decide? -
In the Gospel of Matthew (in the New Testament part of the Bible), Jesus tells his disciples that to do good deeds on Earth is like ‘storing up our treasure in heaven’. God loves us to do good things that help other people.
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However, Jesus also tells his disciples that God does not want us to be boastful about our actions, showing off and making sure that everyone knows that we are doing good things. God is most pleased when we do our good deeds in secret. We know that God sees everything and we want to please him more than anything, so it doesn’t matter if nobody else knows!
- It is nice to be praised for our efforts, but we should see this as an ‘extra’, not an essential, when we are helping others. Thousands of people around the world, called ‘volunteers’, give their time free to help those in need. Often, no one knows who they are or what wonderful help they have given . . . but God knows!
Time for reflection
Ask the children to think about something good or kind that they could do in secret today. Challenge them to tell nobody about this action, but to watch and see what effect it has on the person they show care towards.
(Optional: give each child a piece of paper and a pencil, and ask them to write in secret the ‘good deed’ that they will do today for their friends or family. You may wish them to fold up the slip of paper and put it in a basket for collection.)
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for loving us.
Thank you for the people who care for us.
Please help us to look for ways to help others.
Help us to be willing to do good and helpful things in secret, even if we don’t receive praise for our actions.
Amen.
Follow-up ideas
- Make a huge, double-layered ‘Treasure Chest’ wall display so that the secret good deeds can be placed in the chest.
- Find out what Jesus said in the Gospels about storing up your treasure in heaven and write quotations around the treasure chest.
- Think of ways in which you can care for others, both in your community and further afield.
