When Your Realize God’s Love Was Enough All Along

Posted on Feb 1, 2025

When Your Realize God’s Love Was Enough All Along

As February rolls in, love is in the air, but no earthly romance can compare to the perfect, sacrificial love God shows us. This month, we have a Valentine’s Gift for you: a free lesson on the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) to use with your youth group or family, complete with a game and snack.

This parable is not just a story of family reconciliation; it’s a vivid reminder of God’s unrelenting love for each of us. In the story, a younger son demands his inheritance early, squanders it on reckless living, and finds himself destitute. Realizing his mistake, he returns home, hoping to become a servant in his father’s house. But instead of rejection or anger, the father runs to him, embraces him, and celebrates his return with a feast.

The father’s love is a reflection of God’s love—unconditional, forgiving, and always welcoming us back. It is the kind of story that helps youth realize God’s love was enough all along.

Bible Lesson

Objective: Help students understand God’s unconditional love and encourage them to reflect on their relationship with Him.

  1. Ask students to share a time when they received forgiveness or showed it to someone else. How did that act of forgiveness make them feel?
  1. Read Luke 15:11-32 and discuss these questions:
  • How do you see yourself in the younger son?
  • Why do you think the father forgave so easily?
  • How can we reflect God’s love in our relationships with others?
  1. Provide art supplies and ask students to draw or write a letter to God, imagining what it feels like to come home to His love.
  1. Encourage students to identify one way they can show unconditional love to someone in their lives this week.

Treasure Hunt Game

Supplies Needed

  • Riddles
  1. I’m patient and kind, I never boast, In the Bible, you’ll find I’m mentioned the most. What am I? Answer: Love (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
  2. I’m given freely, a gift undeserved, From God above, to sinners who’ve swerved. What am I? Answer: Grace (Ephesians 2:8-9)
  3. I was the son who ran away, but my father forgave me anyway. Who am I? Answer: The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)
  4. My life was taken on a tree, out of love for you and me. Who am I? Answer: Jesus (John 3:16)
  5. I’m a four-letter word, and I cast out fear. God has shown me to be sincere. What am I?
    Answer: Love (1 John 4:18)
  • A small box or bag labeled “Treasure” with candy hearts, a heart-shaped note, or other prize symbolizing how loved your youth are.

How to Play

  • Create a treasure hunt around your youth room or church space by hiding the 5 riddles and the treasure.
  • Split the students into teams or, for smaller groups, play as one team.
  • Each clue leads to the next, culminating in a final clue that reveals the “lost treasure.” If your youth group is small and working together as one team, after solving each riddle, give a location-based clue to the next riddle. (e.g., “Your next clue is hidden where the pastor speaks on Sundays”). If multiple teams are competing, write the clue to the next riddle on the back of the card.
  • When the treasure is found, discuss how it feels to be “found” like the Prodigal Son and how God rejoices over us.

Snack: Prodigal Piggies

Create mini pigs-in-a-blanket using crescent roll dough and mini hot dogs to remind students of the Prodigal Son’s time feeding the pigs.

How to Make

  1. Wrap each mini hot dog in a small piece of crescent roll dough.
  1. Bake as directed on the crescent roll package.
  1. Serve warm and tie it back to the story—how the son realized even his father’s servants ate better than he was eating! (Optional: serve with mustard or ketchup)

This February, remind your youth group that God’s love is not earned but freely given. Just like the father in the story, He’s always ready to welcome us home with open arms.

Amanda Clark is a veteran youth worker, having worked at camps, churches, and youth-focused non-profits for 25+ years. Want to continue this conversation? Amanda can be reached at [email protected].