Arts & Crafts for Matthew 9:18-26

In Matthew 9:18-26, the Bible tells us of two miracles that Jesus performs. A synagogue leader comes to Jesus to tell him that his daughter has just died. He asks Jesus to come and heal her. As Jesus and the disciples are leaving to go to the girl, a woman who has been sick for twelve years touches Jesus' garment and is healed. Jesus then goes to the little girl and raises her from the dead. Use arts and crafts projects to tell and illustrate these important stories of healing.

Create puppets to represent each of the characters from the story in Matthew 9:18-26. Use a brown paper lunch-size bag for a puppet. Create a puppet of Jesus by drawing a face, adding a fun fur beard and some fabric scrap clothing. Create a puppet of the woman who was sick by drawing a face onto the bag. Leave the mouth off of the face and create a curved line on another piece of paper. Cut it out and attach it to the paper bag with a brad. Leave the woman's face sad until she is healed by Jesus; then turn her frown into a smile.

Another way to make puppet characters for the story in Matthew is to draw the pictures on a piece of paper, color and cut out the images. Attach a craft stick to the bottom of the puppets. Allow children to act out the story in Matthew 9:18-26 with their stick puppets.

Use the story in Matthew 9:18-26 as an inspiration for spiritual enrichment crafts. The synagogue leader's daughter and the woman are both healed by Jesus. Create a prayer journal out of simple materials to write out and record prayers. Provide a spiral notebook for kids and allow them to decorate the cover with stickers or by drawing a picture and pasting it onto the cover. Print the scripture verse from Matthew onto paper and paste it on the cover or first page of the journal. Young children can draw pictures of things they want prayer for, while older children can write out prayers.

Make a bookmark to mark Matthew 9:18-26. Cut a strip of card stock and decorate it with paint, crayons or colored pencils. Punch a hole in one end of the bookmark and make a yarn tassel to go through it. Put the bookmark in the Bible to mark the passage and refer to it often to increase faith.

Create arts & craft items to go along with a study of Matthew 9:18-26. Create a magnet that can serve as a reminder of Jesus' healing powers. Write Jesus' words, as recorded in Matthew 9:22, "your faith has healed you" on a piece of card stock. Decorate the card stock with jewels, stickers or other items and put a magnet on the back. Hang it on the refrigerator as a reminder to turn to Christ in the time of need.

You can also make a fine-art piece to serve as a reminder of the story. Use colored pencils to draw a picture of Christ in a crowd. Show a woman bent to touch the hem of his garment and write "your faith has healed you" across the top in decorative print. Frame the picture to hang as a decorative reminder of what Christ can do.

There are a number of arts and crafts projects that can be made in conjunction with Matthew 9:18-26. Children enjoying coloring pages. Draw some simple line drawings of Jesus and the other characters from the passage. Allow children to color and display the pictures.

Other craft ideas include creating costumes to reenact the story in Matthew 9:18-26 and flash cards. Make flash cards with each verse in the passage. Use the flash cards to help memorize the verses.