A mountain and a growing plant help us talk about beginnings—and about God, who has always been God.
Print the lesson picture
Use the full-colour picture to teach, or revisit the lesson together with the colour-in page.
Get ready
Have beside you: a Bible open at Psalm 90, paper and a crayon. Use the lesson picture on screen or paper; you can also describe its mountains, tree and flower as you draw.
Before you begin, read Psalm 90:1–6. Keep the main distinction simple: everything God made has a beginning; God himself does not.
Open the Bible together
Bible background
Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses. Mountains seem very old and strong, while grass grows and soon dries up. Yet even mountains had a beginning. God was already God before the earth existed. Moses contrasts our short, dependent lives with God’s everlasting life and asks for his mercy. “Eternity” means that God has no beginning or end, not merely that he has lived a very long time.
Open your Bible at Psalm 90:2. Show your child where you are reading and read the complete verse aloud. Listen again to these words:
“from eternity to eternity, you are God.”
Explain in your own words:
“The mountains were not always here. The world was not always here. God was already God before he made them. He has always been God, and he will never stop being God.”
Look at the picture together
- Find the flower. “A flower grows from a plant. It was not always this flower.” Let your child point to its petals.
- Find the tree. “This tree has grown too. God was already God before it began to grow.”
- Trace a mountain with your finger. “Mountains can be very old. Was God already God before the mountains?” Help with “Yes!” The picture shows things God made; it cannot show how long God has existed.
Before our beginnings
Draw a simple baby, a small plant and a mountain on one sheet. Point to the baby and say, “Your life began. Before you were born, God was already God.” You do not need family photographs.
Let your child choose the plant or mountain next. Say, “Before this plant grew, God was God. Before the mountains existed, God was God.” Invite your child to point as you say “before”; a child ready to explain can tell you what is different about God.
Return to Psalm 90:2 and point to the reading. “The Bible tells us this about God.” Keep the drawings as reminders of created things, without adding a drawing of God to the sequence.
John 1:1–3, 14 tells us that Jesus, God’s Son, was with God before the world was made and truly became human. His birth was the beginning of his human life, not the beginning of his existence. The everlasting Son came near to bring us to God.
If you use the colour-in page, recall the flower, tree and mountain while your child colours. Ask which of them God already existed before.
Pray together
Pray while your child listens, inviting a word or their own short prayer if they wish.
“Everlasting God, you were God before the mountains and before our lives began. Thank you that we can depend on you. Help us to know and trust your Son, Jesus. Amen.”
Remember during the day
When you notice a plant growing, remember its beginning. Say, “God was already God before this plant grew.”
Notice the connection: Point to the baby drawing and ask, “Was God already God before you were born?” For a child ready to explain, ask whether God himself had a beginning. Supply the distinction again if needed.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.