"Egg on Her Face"...Teaches 10 Commandments

Why does my friend, Ruth, have egg on her face? She was brave enough to help me teach a wrap-up lesson on a 10 Commandments series in AWANA. Each time I've ever used this lesson, it gets memorable results.

The original lesson plan, "Thou Shalt Not", (which I have adapted) came from The Children's Institute 2000 Living Legends, a book of lessons used while teaching children during various seminars connected with the Institute of Basic Life Principles. 

The introduction looks at the three times in Scripture God actually wrote with His own finger:

1. Etching the 10 Commandments in stone
2. Feast of Belshazzar, with writing on the wall (Daniel 5)
3. Woman caught in adultery, when Jesus wrote in the sand (John 8)

And then an application from each time God wrote with His finger :

1. The giving of the Law (God wrote 10 Commandments)
2. Judgment under the Law (God wrote on the palace walls of Belshazzar)
3. Mercy within the Law (as God, in the person of Jesus, extended mercy to a sinner when He knelt and wrote in the sand saying, "Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.") 

Now...time for the action! I put on my apron and reached for a carton of eggs. The children try to guess what in the world I'm about to do. I show them that my carton contains only 10 eggs...you guessed it...to correspond to each of the 10 commandments. And then...while reviewing each commandment, I had Ruth hold somewhere on her person, each of the 10 eggs.

"Be careful, Ruth. Eggs are a lot like God's Law. You do not want to break them!"

I placed the eggs (reviewing each commandment as I did so):

1. On her head, where she held it under her hand (to protect it)
2. Under an armpit
3. In a pocket
4. In the crook of one arm
5. Under the chin
6. Behind the neck, forming a pocket with her shirt
7. Under her heel (since she did not have a shoe)
8. Between the legs/knees
9. Under another armpit
10. In another pocket

THERE IS JUST ONE SMALL PROBLEM...

I pointed out that Christ did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it, and that He went on to explain them in more detail. And then I began to ask, what I refer to as, the Ray Comfort questions.

Referring to the sixth commandment, I asked Ruth, "Have you ever killed somebody?"

Naturally she answered, "No."

And then continuing, I said,"Well Ruth,that is good. But Jesus said that if you are even angry with your brother or call someone a fool, you are guilty of breaking the sixth commandment. Ruth, have you ever been angry with anyone?"

Then as she answered, "Yes," I very quickly, before she had time to react, said "Then you have broken God's Law!"

And I hit the hand that was holding the egg on her head...and helped all the others break as well, for if you break even one commandment, you are guilty of breaking them all.

There stood Ruth, in a mess of broken eggs, the yuckiness dripping down her face and soaking her clothes...symbolic of the terrible mess we make when we break God's Law.

Finally, I went on to present simple truths of the Gospel plan, reviewing the applications from God's writing with His finger. I took a huge sheet of white cloth and draped it around Ruth and all her mess. Isn't that what Jesus does for us? He wipes away the stain of our sin, and covers us with His white robe of righteousness.

Because Jesus lived without breaking any of the commandments...when we have egg on our face, so to speak...only He can make us clean again. A truth well worth illustrating, don't you think?