The Gospel of Luke Bible Study for Youth – Lesson 5: Luke 12-14

Select the option that best suits your group’s needs:

Exercise Option 1:

• Read “The Starfish Story”, casting one person each as a narrator, the man, and the boy:

A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean. As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water. The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied,” I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen. “But”, said the man, “You can’t possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The boy smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied, “It made a difference to that one.”

• Ask questions of the cast: How did it feel to play this role?
• Ask the group to walk to one side of the room (or a corner, or wall) if they believe that that little bit of action makes a difference, and to the other side/corner/wall if they don’t believe that. Ask them to explain their choice.

Exercise Option 2:

• Watch the video clip together. (YouTube clip)
• Discuss how the instruments bring the people alive again, and turn their world upside-down, even if only for a few minutes. Giving people a chance to make their own music allows for beauty to abound.