When I was in High School my youth group went on a missions trip to inner city Philadelphia. We painted a building there, did Bible Clubs in ghetto playgrounds and had night-time services with foot-washing and communion. It was foundational for me and my Christian walk!
As part of our training, we learned about the Wordless Book. Have you heard of this? It’s an old, simple way to tell the Gospel story with just colors. No words.
Yellow/Gold is the color of the streets of gold in Heaven. God wants us to live with Him forever. But there’s a problem…
Black* represents the sin in our hearts. Sin can’t be with God. So, God came up with a solution…
Red reminds us of the blood Jesus shed when He came to earth and took our sins upon Himself.
White* is how our hearts look after Jesus forgives our sins when we ask Him!
Green is the color of growth. When we begin our new life with Christ we want to grow in it. (A simple way to teach about growing in the Lord? Go to the Lord in prayer. Read your Bible. Obey. Worship God at church.)
Clearly, this is verrrry simplified but it’s a super way to teach kids, new Christians and others the basic plan of God’s plan for salvation! Child Evangelism Fellowship has a great script to help you talk through each color. Also, through the years, people have added other colors like purple and blue to symbolize other important Biblical ideas. But the original colors are the ones I mentioned above.
There are many many ways to use this Wordless Book. You could make a mini book with felt or construction paper. Or a giant one with posterboard. Or you could use one of these super fun ideas I found online…
1. Bracelet
This is how we did it for our Missions Trip. String some beads, wear it around and you’ve got instant conversation starters! (And since it was the early 90’s we were even cooler and added the beads to our shoelaces!) You could also use your rainbow loom to make bracelets or how ’bout this cool balloon bracelet?
This is actually a magic trick. It’s a simple cloth bag and every time you turn it inside out, it’s a new color. Super fun!
I love this idea–perfect for teaching it to your kiddos or giving as an actual Valentine!
Oh, my. You know my Truth-in-the-Tinsel heart loves this! Use colored ornaments to tell the story. Genius. That Rachel Wojo is smart.
5. Soccer Ball
There’s an easy craft here and a real soccer ball here! How great would that real soccer ball be on a missions trip to another country!
6. Lego Shapes
HOW AWESOME IS THIS?!! Make legos and talk about the story! This site includes a PDF for help with talking through each color and shape.
7. Easter Eggs
I’m not a big fan of eggs and bunnies (see Sense of the Resurrection) but I think this would be a fun craft for school or for redeeming an Easter egg.
8. Nesting Cans
I super love this idea from my friend Maureen at Spell Outloud. She’s got a whole page of great ideas for Wordless Book crafts, printables and activities! Check it out!
9. Gospel Worm
This is a simple craft but you might remember my son loooves puffballs so this would be a perfect one for him!
Pretty cool, huh? What I love about the Wordless Book is that it helps train our own kids how to relay the Bible and it’s message clearly and concisely. But it also actually helps lead people to that real story!
How have you used the Wordless Book?
*or “dark” and “clean”, if you want to be careful about flippant skin-tone references.
