Supplies:

Two clear plastic cups per student,
tape,
markers,
clean playground sand, sugar, or salt

Note to the Teacher

This lesson, “Signs and Times,” inspired by Matthew 24:36–44, invites students to explore what it means to wait faithfully during Advent. The icebreaker, “The Waiting Game Remix,” playfully helps students experience the tension of uncertainty and the challenge of patience. The discussion encourages them to consider how readiness, trust, and faith shape their lives when outcomes are unknown. In the “Advent Hourglass” activity, students create a visual reminder that while they can’t control the timing of God’s work, they can choose how to live — with hope, love, and faithfulness — in the waiting.

Icebreaker: "The Waiting Game Remix" (10 min.)

Invite students to stand in a circle. Tell them you’re going to test who’s best at waiting. Explain to the students that you are going to play a song, and they are going to walk in a circle. When you stop the music, they will have to freeze exactly as they are. If they are in mid-step, they will stop with one foot on the ground, and so on. The first person to move is out. You’ll continue starting and stopping the music until there is one person left.

Bible Reading (5 min.)

Read Matthew 24:36–44.

Discussion Questions (10 min.)

Themes: the world is constantly changing; anxiety versus hope and faith

What does Jesus say about knowing the day or hour of his return? How do you think this affects people’s patience, trust, and faith in God?
What comparisons does Jesus make between the arrival of the Son of Man and everyday life events?
Tell the story of a time when you or someone you know had to trust God, even when you/they didn’t understand the timing or plan.
What are some “things of the world” that people might cling to instead of trusting God’s timing?
How could waiting with faith feel different from waiting with fear or frustration?
Imagine one sentence Jesus might say to remind you how to “keep watch” in your own life — what would it be?

Active Learning Activity (20 min.)

“Advent Hourglass”

Provide each student with two clear plastic cups, tape, paper, markers, and clean playground sand, sugar, or salt. Have a nail or a sharp pencil available to pierce the cups. If your cups are brittle, you may need a drill with a thin bit to pierce them.

Explain to the students that they will create an hourglass. It’s best to have one already created as an example. Start by having students tape the cups bottom to bottom. They will need to make sure the tape goes all the way around the seam, so it is completely sealed. Then have an adult use the tool you selected to pierce the bottoms of both cups, making sure the hole goes through both cups and is open on each side. Then have students cover one cup’s top with tape, effectively sealing it off into a container.

Invite them to think about things they cannot control. Those might include people’s actions, the future, their parents’ relationship, and so on. Then ask them to write those things on the top of the hourglass or around the edges of the top side, depending on how well the markers work on the different materials.

Then, invite them to think about things they can control, such as their own decisions, how they use their time, being patient, and so on. Have them write these on the bottom cup.

Once they’ve finished, have them turn the hourglass with the taped side down and fill the top three-fourths of the way full with sugar, salt, or sand. They can then tape the top closed while they watch the hourglass work its magic.

“As time moves forward, we can’t control everything — but we can choose what kind of people we’ll be while we wait.”

Leave time for students to share what they thought they could control and what they felt they couldn’t. Let students share or display their hourglasses as visual reminders that Advent is about how we wait, not how long we wait.