What happens when you die?
From Stories About God by Mary Ann Moore
& Long Ago and Many Lands by Sopia Fahs

Goal: 1) To consider the idea that the spirit of God is with people throughout their lives, including when they die; and 2) To hear an ancient story that explains life and death and to talk about the reality of death.

Activities:

1) Make collage:

Preparation:
1. Read Background for The Spirit of God Is There When Someone Dies
2. Cut out a large circle (24” in diameter) from posterboard or heavy craft paper.
3. Draw an inner circle about 8” in diameter.
4. Cut out several circles 3” in diameter from light-colored construction paper.
5. Gather magazines with pictures of people of all ages, scissors, and glue.

Begin by going through the magazines you collected and cut out pictures of people of all ages from babies to elderly. Make piles by approximate ages: babies, children, teenagers, adults, elders.
Place pictures on the outer edge of the large circle you cut out: start with babies, then progress around the circle with people getting progressively older, ending with the eldest beside the babies. Glue the pictures in place.

Read: “The Spirit of God Is There When Someone Dies.”

Discuss: The story said that the spirit of God was with the woman in her dying. What do you think happens when a person or an animal dies?

Service of Remembering:
Ask everyone to think of names of people or pets who they would like to remember and to write each names on one of the colored construction paper circles. Attach them to the inner ring of the large paper circle. As each small circle is placed on the larger one, ask everyone to join you in saying the following:
“We remember_______________. The spirit of God is with him (or her).
End the service by saying “The spirit of God is there when we remember loved ones who have died.”

2) Tell a Story
Introduce the story by telling the children that this story was told nearly two thousand years ago. It is a story from India (show on a map). Back then there were people who wondered and puzzled over the same questions the children were thinking about, and a certain man named Kassapa (Kas-sa’-pa) tried to put his ideas into a story.

Read: “A Musician and His Trumpet.”

Discuss:
If you have had a pet die, ask your children how they felt when the pet died? What was different about you pet after it had died?
How would you say, in your own words, what Kassapa meant to say about what happens when a person’s body dies?