Hands that Knit – Arms that Hold • Life Sunday Children’s Message 
God’s Knitting Room

Do you like to receive gifts? I think everyone would agree that receiving a gift is a wonderful feeling. Perhaps you have received, for Christmas or on your birthday, a special item that was knitted by someone you love. Maybe it was a woolen cap, or mittens, or a sweater, or an afghan. [Have one or more of these to show.] It was special because someone took the time to make that “something” just for you.

Even if you received this gift a long time ago and it is old and frayed and faded, it is still special because of who made it just for you. [Display one of the items above that is in such condition.]

Do any of you knit? Or have you ever seen anyone knit something? [Wait for a show of hands.] Well, knitting is a “hands on” activity. Someone has to carefully pick out the right yarn and the proper needles to use. Then they have to read the pattern correctly so that the item looks good and is useful. It is a loving project. [Have some of these items available or, if you knit or could have someone assisting you who does, demonstrate some actual knitting.]

In the Bible we read, “For you [God] formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). God takes special care in fashioning every human life. God has even created a very special place within a mother’s body that becomes His “knitting room.” [Having someone noticeably pregnant would enhance this portion of the message!]

Your life did not begin on your “birth”-day, the day you were born. Your life began about nine months before you were born, inside God’s knitting room. This was your “life day.” No one could see you there, but God was forming you and feeding you inside your mother’s womb.

When your life began, you were tinier than this dot. [Have a piece of paper with a dot the size of a period, or show a period at the end of the sentence in the bulletin or Bible.] Even when you were only this size, you were you! God knew if you were a boy or a girl; whether you would have brown, blonde, red, or black hair; even how tall or short you would be.

You did a lot of growing in the first weeks after your life began. When you were 21 days old, your heart began to beat! At 40 days, your brain waves could be recorded!

[In lieu of the objects talked about below, you could use fetal models if available or fetal development pictures. Watch Me Grow posters are available from Lutherans For Life through Concordia Publishing House at www.cph.org.] 

By the time you were 10 weeks old, your body was about the size of a house key. [Have a key.] Your heart had already been beating for over a month. Teeth buds were forming in your jaw. Your kidneys had begun their work. Your tiny fingers had fingerprints and you could hold on to an object that was placed in your hand.

At 15 weeks after your life began, your body was about the length of a comb. [Display comb 4 inches long.] By this time, your ears were functioning and you could hear your mother’s voice. Hair was growing on your head, and you liked to exercise vigorously! You kicked your legs and waved your arms and turned somersaults inside your mother!

When you were 20 weeks old, about 5 months old, you were about the length of a toothbrush. [Display tooth brush.] Every part of your body was there and working, but only now, for the very first time, your mother could feel you moving inside of her.

At 30 weeks after your life began, about 7 and one half months, you were about the length of a drinking straw. [Show straw.] Your skin began to grow thicker and smoother as layers of fat developed. You were preparing for the day you would be born, the day when everyone would finally get to see you.

You, and each and every human being, are special because you were made by God! He knit you together in your mother’s womb. 

You, and each and every human being, are special because God loved what He made with His hands so much that He sent Jesus, His only Son, from heaven into His knitting room in Mary. Jesus, too, was knit together in his mother’s womb. He was born as a little baby. He lived a perfect life for us. Most important of all, He died on the cross, taking all of our sin upon Himself.

Remember this? [Show tattered and torn object from above.] Well, our lives are tattered and torn by sin, the bad things we do. But God loves and values every person in the world so much, that He was willing to suffer death on a cross so that we could spend eternity with Him.

God wants everyone to know that every life is important to Him because of what Jesus has done and because God knit each one of us together in our mother’s womb, God’s knitting room!

God’s Knitting Room by was adapted from a chapel presentation by Connie Davis, president of LFL of Michigan. Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.