Corners of Love

God’s love never ends

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To consider that God’s love is for sharing.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a piece of paper with the words ‘God’s love’ written on it.
• You will also need a pair of scissors and a paper triangle for each child.

Assembly

1. Explain that today, we will be thinking about God’s love.
   
   Ask the children what they know about God’s love.
   
   
2. Tell the children that Christians believe that God’s love is great and that his love will never run out.
   
   
3. Explain that we could think about God’s love as being like this piece of paper.
   
   Show the piece of paper that has ‘God’s love’ written on it.
   
   Point to the corners and ask the children to count them with you.
   
   Explain that in this case, God’s love has four corners.
   
   
4. Ask the children, ‘If I were to cut off one of the corners to give to you, how many corners would be left?’
   
   Listen to a range of responses. (Encourage the children to think about 4 – 1 = 3)
   
   
5. Cut off a corner and give it to a child. You may wish to explain why you are giving the corner to that child, saying something like, ‘I’m giving this to you because you gave me such a lovely smile this morning and it really cheered me up.’
   
   
6. Now count the corners on the piece of paper. Explain that although 4 – 1 = 3, the shape now has five corners! One corner was given away, but now there are more corners than before.
   
   
7. Point out that this seems rather odd. Count the corners again to check.
   
   Establish that usually when we do sums that involve subtracting, the answer is always less.
   
   
8. Tell the children that you are going to give away some more of God’s love.
   
   Cut off a second corner and give it to a child, giving a reason for selecting that child if you wish.
   
   Explain that we had four corners at the start, so now that we have given away two, we would expect to be left with two.
   
   Ask the children to count the corners with you. Look surprised when they count six.
   
   
9. Continue in this way, cutting off a third corner and giving it to a third child.
   
   Identify that each time you cut off a corner, you end up with MORE corners of God’s love.
   
   
10. Ask one of the recipients, ‘Did I give you one corner of God’s love?’
    
    The child will probably say yes.
    
    Ask the recipient to count the corners on their piece of paper – there will be three.
    
    
11. Ask the children what lesson they could learn from this demonstration.
    
    Listen to a range of responses.

Time for reflection

Explain that Christians believe that God’s love never gets less and it never will. His love goes on and on.

Point out that each of us has love to give away. When we show someone love and kindness, that doesn’t mean that we have less to give! In fact, as we love more, we seem to be topped up with more love so that we can give it out to even more people. The more love we give away, the more there is!

Ask the children to think about how they can show love to others.

Listen to a range of responses.

Give each of the children a corner (triangle) of God’s love.

Ask them to close their eyes and picture who they would give a corner to and why. Ask them to think about how this would make that person feel.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you that your love is for everyone.
Thank you that your love never runs dry.
Help us to receive your love and also to share your love with others.
Amen.

Song/music

‘Love is something’ by Malvina Reynolds, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zx5iSExD9I (2.56 minutes long)