Elisha and the Widow’s Oil craft ideas

Elisha and the widow’s oil is a story from 2 Kings 4:1-7 where we read about Elisha helping a widow who needed to pay her debts. He told her to borrow as many empty jars of oil as she could from neighbours and then go inside her home and close the door. What happened next shows us God’s care for his people.

Elisha and the widow’s oil Bible Story

Bible Truth for Toddlers – God cares about us

To tell the story to young children – you need a bottle of oil.

‘There was once a woman who had two sons. Sadly, her husband had died and she was in trouble. She owed some bad people money and she had no way of paying them back.

She went to see Elisha. He was God’s prophet. ‘I am in trouble. Can you help me?!’ she asked

What do you have at home? Elisha asked

I have one jar of oil. (Show the oil)

Elisha told her what she must do. ‘Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your neighbours. Then go home. Shut the door and start to pour the oil into the empty jars and then sell the oil and pay your debts’

What would the woman do? She started to borrow empty jars. She went to one home and then another and then another. Soon she had lots of empty jars.

Then she went home and closed the door.

Her sons helped her start to pour the oil into an empty jar. And something amazing happened. As they filled the empty jar the oil that they had started with didn’t run out. They filled another jar and still it didn’t run out. Soon all the jars were full of oil. And once they were all full the oil that they had started with stopped flowing.

Now oil is expensive and the woman was able to sell all this extra oil. She had enough money to pay her debts and money left over for her and her sons to live on.

Elisha was able to help because he was God’s prophet. God cared about this woman and her sons. God cares about you and me too.’

Craft ideas – free downloads

One idea is to colour/decorate jars of oil. The other is to add more jars of oil to the picture and then colour or decorate.