The Wedding at Cana

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1. Very briefly talk about the start of Jesus' ministry: his baptism, temptations and how he started work, preaching and healing.

2. Say that this week's story is the very first miracle that Jesus did.
Does anyone know what it might be?
If they don't know, find a picture of the wedding at Cana or simply of wine and, using pieces of cardboard, slowly uncover the picture a little at a time so that they can guess what you are revealing.

3. Tell the story, using the children as actors and using wine glasses, a table and six large pots (or washing-up bowls, big saucepans or similar) as props. You might want to take photos for your display, if you have permission from primary carers.
There is a funny rhyming version from the point of view of the person in charge of the catering in The Gospels Unplugged.

4. Hot seat Mary, a wedding guest, the bride and a disciple to find out what they thought of the miracle. Try to establish how disastrous it would have been if there had been no wine for the party.

5. Prayer: have a focal point of a glass of water and a glass of wine. Say that Jesus loves to change disasters into miracles, to change really bad times into really good times. Ask the children to pray now for people or places who are going through a bad time, asking Jesus to turn those situations into great times.
Ask what this story tells us about who Jesus is.

6. Craft: make a display. You might want to use digital photos of the scene the children acted out earlier, or choose a masterpiece painting of the wedding at Cana. Divide it into squares and ask each child to copy that square on to a piece of card or paper, and then reassemble them all on your display as your own version of the picture. Or have two large wineglass shapes in card and ask the children to glue on mosaic paper pieces of blue (for the water glass) and red (for the wineglass).

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