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Artwork by the Sunday school children enhanced this year’s Advent services at in St. Catharines, Ont. The Joy Jam kids depicted two of God’s covenant promises, shared through the prophet Jeremiah, with 3 x 4 foot (91 cm x 121 cm) mosaics displayed in the worship space throughout Advent.

The art is part of the kindergarten to grade five curriculum unit, “Promises Made,” written by the church’s volunteer curriculum-writing team. During the four weeks of November, students heard Jeremiah’s prophesies to the Israelites and then worked to illustrate Scripture.

“On the first Sunday of the month, the Joy Jam children worked together to break pottery,” said Stacy Kok, the church’s children’s ministry coordinator. “They saw [plates, jugs, and bowls] broken into pieces, symbolic of God breaking apart the kingdom of Israel. They also learned how God promised to restore his kingdom and write a new covenant on their hearts.”

People in the congregation donated chipped plates, mugs, and other items for the project. Equipped with hammers, pillow cases, and cardboard boxes to contain the mess, every child in four classes participated in breaking the pieces of pottery that would become their art.

In subsequent weeks they pieced together the broken parts in designs “making a picture of the promises,” Kok said.

“At first we didn’t tell [the children] what we were making, so they didn’t have that anticipation. The following Sundays, the children learned that God promised to send a rescuer—Jesus. He promised that this rescuer would be a shepherd to lead his people and that this rescuer would be a

King who would reign forever,” Kok said.

The December lessons continued to explore how God is a promise-keeper through Jesus, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.