Give your child a piece of paper and ask him or her if they could step through it. They will probably say something like “No way!” or “That’s impossible!” Next take a pair of scissors and make a cut through the middle. Ask if this will make it easier? (Of course not)

Then use the scissors again making several cuts from the center going out but not cutting all the way to the edge. Then cut from the outside going in toward the center between the first cuts being careful not to cut all the way up to the opposite edge.

Study this picture:   I drew lines on the lower right corner to make it easier to see how to cut the card. The left corner has already been cut. I find it is easier to cut the center from near the top to near the bottom, and again near the right side to near the left side first.

Then work around the card in four sections. Be sure none of the cuts go all the way from the inside to the outside or you will break the loop and have to start over. On the right is a picture showing three of the sections cut.

Now you can pull on the paper to spread it out. By the time the fourth section has been cut the paper card can be stretched far enough to pull it down over your head and slide it all the way down your body and step out of it.

I made the pictures above with a 3×5 card which requires a lot of very close cuts. If you are doing this activity with young children try a thin paper plate. You won’t need to make as many cuts and the plate is thick enough to hold up to some tougher tugging.

Even though a 3X5 card is pretty small, with enough cuts placed just right it can stretch around a person. This card wasn’t cut as closely as it could have been or it would have stretched even bigger.

Is there anything too hard for God? Remind your child that sometimes we worry about problems as if nobody could make everything right again. Getting through those problems might feel like walking through a locked door. But God in his unlimited wisdom and power can handle those problems as easily as cutting the paper or plate so we could go through them.

Jeremiah 32:17 says it was God’s own power and strength that made the earth and all of creation. There is nothing that is too hard for God.

By Janice D. Green, author of The Creation and The First Christmas 

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