Teaching the toddlers in my church’s Sunday school is one of my favorite activities. Yes, it can be chaotic. I have been known to be the mean teacher who cuts kids off after their fourth helping of Cheerios, and the one to begrudgingly pick said Cheerios up off the floor. But the kids’ sweet personalities and innocent wonder make the chaos worth it. Above all, I try to keep awareness that these little humans have hearts and minds open to hearing God’s Word, and gratitude that I am part of their early experience of God’s love.

‘Teach Them to Your Children’

As a Sunday school teacher, I don’t take lightly the commands of Deuteronomy 6:5-9. They remind me that just as I have to study and internalize God’s Word as an adult, I must teach God’s Word to the children in my life. In my experience, kids won’t instinctively turn to Scripture without instruction and examples to follow.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Never forget these commands that I am giving you today. Teach them to your children. Repeat them when you are at home and when you are away; when you are resting and when you are working. Tie them on your arms and wear them on your forehead as a reminder. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.”

One of the challenges of being a Sunday school teacher, especially to such a young age group, is finding resources to effectively carry out these commands. How can we teach kids to “never forget,” to love God with all their hearts through encountering God in Scripture?

The Bible is full of examples to follow for our spiritual and moral growth, and focusing on these stories is the traditional approach of preschool Bible curriculum. But this sort of focus on snippets from the Bible falls short of the whole picture. Individual life stories like Abraham, Noah, Daniel, David, and Jonah are interesting and digestible for children, but it is equally important for kids to understand the Bible’s larger narrative. When they not only learn the little stories, but the big story, they are less likely to forget that God loves them from beginning to end.

My Favorite Way to Teach Kids God’s Story

My church recently purchased a book for our classrooms that illustrates God’s big story in an engaging and memorable way. The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross, written by Carl Laferton and illustrated by Catalina Echeverri, explains the biblical narrative in simple, straightforward stages.

Here are some of the stages from the book that I have used to explain God’s big story to toddlers. I normally pair one of these sections from Laferton’s book with a lesson from our previous curriculum, drawing on a Bible story. You could try this with kids in your church or at home with your family.

The Simple Stages

1. The Garden of Eden is perfect—all of creation lived with God. Laferton encapsulates this idea in saying that Adam and Eve “could see God, and speak to God, and just enjoy being with God” (p. 6). What a beautiful representation of the Garden—it is a place of safety and peace because God is in it.
2. This perfection is tarnished when Adam and Eve sin and put their own will above God’s will. Adam and Eve are no longer allowed to live in the garden with God.
3. God’s presence is still with Adam and Eve, and the people who come after them. God talks to some people directly. God lives near them in a fire and a cloud, then a tent, and finally in a temple. God’s presence is in the innermost part of the temple, near, but separated by a curtain. This curtain is a “keep-out sign”—people’s sin keeps them separated from God, generation after generation.
4. But God’s plan is to not let us be separated forever. Jesus is God’s only Son. When Jesus died on the cross, God took the curtain in the temple, the “keep-out sign,” and tore it in two.
5. Since Jesus died and came back to life, our relationship with Jesus offers us a promise of a future “garden” in which we will live with God and have a personal relationship with him just like Adam and Eve did in the first garden.

As I teach through each stage, I love that the kids get to hear how God shows love to us both through the lives of regular people, and in sending Jesus to be a savior for the whole world.

What books have you found that beautifully illustrate the gospel? What are some ways that you help children understand that the God of the Bible loves them, too?