Sensory Bible Stories

  Photo by Kit Suman on Unsplash A couple of weeks ago I wrote a sensory story about Moses, in a couple of weeks ago I was also self-isolating. After over two years of avoiding the inevitable, my positive lateral flow test finally arrived. Thankfully it came with fairly mild symptoms and also with a sense of gratitude for God’s provision. I was thankful that it arrived at a time where I didn’t need to cancel or rearrange anything particularly urgent. I was thankful that it arrived at a time where my body was already healthy and reasonably energized, able to recover easily. I was thankful for practical provisions, a safe comfortable home in which to recover, food deliveries already in place and offers of practical help. As I read the Bible’s account of Moses’ earliest days ( Exodus 2 ) one of the themes which struck me was that of provision. God provides Moses with safety while he floats down the Nile in a basket. He provides Moses with a new family and home with Pharoah’s daught...

       Setting up! I wanted to share some resources that we’ve used at Church in the run up to Easter. We were able to run our ministry for children and young people with additional needs under covid-19 restrictions as a support group. It was joyous. For three weeks we played and listened to truths about Jesus coming on a donkey as our King and rescuer. We celebrated like the people on Palm Sunday with balloons and bubbles and a sound button which said ‘Hosanna’. We played with dusty flour and soap and water and some of us even washed our feet as we talked about Jesus washing His friends’ feet. Because He loved them and He loves us. We admired an Easter garden and heard about Mary’s joy at meeting her resurrected friend Jesus in the garden. It had been a long time since we had met together so although I’ve included plans for sensory stories in the resources below our sessions had more of a free-play feel and we didn’t include a structured story time each week. We s...

  The first disclaimer about this story is that I’ve never actually run it. At least I’ve not run it with any children and young people with additional needs. I ran it by myself during the Summer of 2020 when we were still doing church from home. I filmed it and made a video where I talked parents through how they could run it with their children. You can see it here if you’re interested. In 2020 when sending resources to families (sensory story templates, videos, practical prayer ideas, etc) I gave the disclaimer that if they try running this in their living room at home, it won’t look like it does in my living room. With children and young people with additional needs around the script doesn’t often always get followed. At home there’ll be unlimited distractions from toys to technology, siblings to pets, the smell of food from the kitchen or the sound of a lawn mower outside. It can be discouraging when sharing the gospel with children or young people with additional needs do...

There are so many occasions where the sensory story we’ve run on a particular week feels coincidently relevant to my life or to something happening in the wider world. The story of John the Baptist might be my favourite example of this. We ran this story in September 2020 on the first week which we were able to meet after over six months of churches been closed due to covid-19 restrictions. Our mainstream children’s and youth ministries were both studying Mark that term so I searched that gospel for something which might lend itself to being turned into a sensory story. John the Baptist with his honey and locust-based snacks, his itchy clothes and straggly hair and his connection to water seemed to fit the bill. I was so excited to be able to come back to church in person and to be able to share Bible stories with the children and young people in our group once again. We were aware of how difficult the preceding months had been for those with additional needs and their families and i...