Adapted with permission from the Sharing Our Journeys resource developed by Friends in Britain Yearly Meeting.

This activity works well in small groups or as a whole meeting and is appropriate for children, teens, adults, or intergenerational groups. Plan for this activity to take 30-45 minutes, depending on group size.

Prepare: For this activity, you will need a “God Bag” – these are easy to create. Find a nice cloth bag and fill it with a variety of objects, such as a hair brush, a rubber duck, a cloth flower, a small stone, a colored shell, a puzzle piece, and more. Make sure to have at least one item in the bag for each participant.

Explain that we are calling this the “God Bag,” but that participants can feel free to use whatever spiritual language they prefer: Spirit, the Divine, the Universe, That Which is Eternal…

Share: Pass the bag around the group and ask people to draw out an object and answer the question, “How is this like God?” or “How does this make me think of God?” or “How is this different than God?”

Reflect: Return to the large group and discuss the following questions: What was this experience like for you? What did you learn about others? How did the God Bag make you think differently about the nature of God, or did it? What item would you put in the God Bag to represent God for you?