El Roi

There is a name for God, El Roi, which means "the God who sees me."

It's only mentioned once in the Bible by a women named Hagar.

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her:
“You are the God who sees me” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me."

{Genesis 16:13} 

I've been really studying this name of God out and the more I search, the more in awe of God I am. He sees me.... that's powerful. I wanted to use something simple to show my kids that the Lord is constantly watching them... that He always sees them- not to evoke fear of messing up, but to build confidence in a Creator who loves.

We took some painters tape  and made a road on the ground. Then we took all of the stuff we had around the house and made a little city (bridges from our train table, picnic table from our dollhouse, Animals from our jungle, etc). It was so much fun finding stuff to put in our city... we had a zoo, a construction site, a Monster Truck show... all sorts of stuff. After we were playing for awhile, I had the kids get up on the couch and look down at the city. 

Do you see everything?

Do you know what's going on?

They came to the conclusion that since they were big and because they made the city themselves, they knew everything that was happening. I loved the tie in with our Heavenly Father! Such a successful hands-on Bible story... one that challenged me as well! 

The kids LOVE playing with our city and there are even talks of adding a hospital, a castle and a real-live ant farm! Here are some links to some more awesome ideas for your El Roi playtime.... here, here and here

Or you could make it super easy on yourself and get this.

If you are nervous about the inside... just use chalk outside on a nice day.