Directions:

1. Drop a sheet of paper to the floor from arm’s height
   
   
2. Drop a book separately (or beside the paper) to the floor from the same height
   
   
3. Now place the paper sheet on the book and ask yourself, “With the same gravity working on the paper and the book, will the sheet of paper fall at the same rate as the book?”
   
   
4. Drop the book with the paper sheet on top of it.

Questions:

1. Why did the sheet of paper drop just as fast as the book, when the paper was on top?
   
   
2. Why did the sheet of paper drop slower than the book when they were dropped separately?
   
   
3. What would happen if the book were smaller than the sheet of paper and the two were dropped together?
   
   
4. What would happen if the sheet of paper were dropped in a vacuum tube?

Explanation:

Dropping the sheet of paper to the floor by itself will make it move from side to side and descend slowly because of the air resistance. The book is heavy enough to overcome the air friction and it drops in that short distance as if there were no resistance. Together, our intuition says that the paper should stay behind the book in falling to the floor, but they fall at the same rate because under the paper there is no air and thus no resistance. It is as if the paper fell in a vacuum.

Bible Lesson:

The book is like a gang or clique, which is a group of kids who only let certain ones be their friends; and who will not let anyone be their friend who they think aren’t cool.  Gravity, or temptation, has a profound effect on this book. 

The single sheet of paper is you. It’s kind of lonely.  But the reason the clique won’t let you be a part of their group is because you don’t think the things they think are cool are cool, like gossiping, lying, cheating, smoking, drugs…etc.  So they won’t let you in.  You don’t like to do those things because they are not what Jesus wants you to do.  When these temptations come to you, look what happens. The paper floats back and forth and falls gently to the floor.

Maybe you thought you wouldn’t give in to temptation at all; but we do sometimes. But did you notice the difference?  You didn’t crash; you didn’t fall for it right away; but you did take yourself out of Jesus’ hands, didn’t you?  So because we don’t sin as much as some of the other kids we might be tempted to think we’re better than they are because we would never fall for same of the stuff they do.

But be careful, because if we don’t stay in Jesus’ hands we may well find ourselves hanging around with them more and more. If we get too close to them what do you suppose will happen to us when they go down?  Just like the paper falls quickly when placed on top of the book, we go down, too - just as hard as they do.  So let’s not see how close to the world we can get; let’s see how connected with Jesus we can stay.