Noah’s Ark Craft

The story of Noah’s ark is a powerful story about God’s holiness, but there is also an underlying story of grace that points forward to Jesus. I have done two other Noah’s Ark crafts: Noah’s Ark made with Spaghetti and my Paper Plate Noah’s Ark. If you are looking for a Noah’s Ark craft with a surprise element, I’ve got you covered. However, if you still want more Noah’s Ark craft ideas or if you are looking for more great Bible craft ideas for your family, school or church, please check out my post with 100 Great Bible Crafts. That craft and story of Noah’s Ark I bring you today points to both God’s holiness and God’s grace.

How does Noah’s Ark point to God’s holiness? God is holy. The evil that you see in the world around you disgusts you. You see the pain and the destruction caused in the lives of people around the world. For me, the atrocities done to children, make me especially sick. I think we can all unite in sadness and appall at some of the horrible things we read about in the world news. Guess what?! It is appalling to God too. He is more holy than we can comprehend, so the things that oppose his righteousness, bring him disgust too. During Noah’s time, evil had overcome the world. “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5. He loved man, but he did not like what man had become. He wanted to rid the earth of the evil that had taken over the heart of man, and He did.

How does Noah’s Ark point to God’s grace? His grace was shown in His sparing of one man, Noah, and his family so the race could continue. When God created man He said, “It is very good.” All the rest of creation he had called “good,” but he loved what He had created in man (Genesis 1). However, man turned away from God and chose a path of loving themselves rather than their Creator. Evil, over time, had become rampant. Grace is shown in the fact that he wanted to wipe away all the evil that had overtaken the world. He couldn’t stand the pain that was being done to people. So, he saved a remnant of his creation and did away with the rest. Did the story of Noah’s ark result in a sinless world? Absolutely not. Man, again, went down a path of choosing power, wealth, sin and destruction rather than God, righteousness and love. In his grace, rather than destroying the world again, he sent a Savior. He knew of humanity’s need for a Savior, so He sent his son, Jesus, into the world to wipe away sin in a different way. Rather than killing us off, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8. Where God once used water to wash away the sins of the world, He now uses Christ’s blood. Does that mean believers are perfect now? Absolutely not. However, it means that our sins are no more in God’s eyes when we choose to trust in God’s free gift through faith in his Son. The Bible also points to a future time when sin will be wiped permanently from the earth. We await a time when Christ will return to establish His kingdom, and “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” – Revelation 21:4. Christ’s future return is another indication of his holiness and His grace. What does it take to be a part of this future kingdom? Faith.

The craft today is meant to point to both God’s holiness and grace. The truth is that some think of Noah’s ark as a sweet kid story, but I love Tim Hawkins humor and his take on it in this quick one minute comedy sketch:

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Now that we have established the heart behind the story and the dual message we can share with the kids, we want a craft that is meaningful and powerful. I wanted to create an element of surprise that involved the addition of water. I was inspired by my pervious coffee filter tie dye craft for this Noah’s Ark craft.  I also wanted this craft to point forward to Jesus and tie the Old Testament with the New Testament, which is done so beautifully in two of my favorite resources for teaching kids about the Bible: Jesus Storybook Bible and Long Story Short.

Material’s Needed for Noah’s Ark Craft

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• Coffee Filters
• Markers
• White Crayon
• Pencil
• Water Dropper
• Paper Towels
• Water

How to Make Noah’s Ark Craft

• Take a coffee filter and fold it in half.
• Either draw an outline of an ark shape at the top of the coffee filter for the kids to cut out or cut it out yourself, depending on the age of the kids. The upper right picture above shows what exactly will be cut off.
• Draw a rectangular “window” with the pencil. Inside of the window, with the white crayon, draw a cross. I enhanced the picture so you could see it, but it is barely noticeable to the kids. Tell the kids that when they are drawing, add color around the window but do not color within the window. The more color drawn around the window, the more prominent the cross will appear when water is added.

• Have kids color the Noah’s ark with marker. They (or you) can write the word grace or holiness on the ark, if desired. The more ink around the windows, the more prominent the cross will “magically” appear.
• Set the ark on top of a paper towel, to absorb the extra water and color. I also put this on top of a plate for easy clean up and protection of the table.
• It’s time to add water. Using a water droplet, allow kids to drop water onto the ark. The water tie-in is another element that brings in the story of the flood, but you could even talk about the significance of water baptism and being washed clean. The more water you use, the more the markers will dissipate, so you want to encourage kids to use enough water for the ink to spread, but not too much where the color will disappear completely.

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These are beautiful when hung in a window as a reminder of God’s holiness and grace. The cross shows through brightly to remind us of how the story of Noah points forward to a Savior called Jesus Christ.