Modified By: Johnathan Kirsch
Description
Schmutz comes back from art camp with some paintings for his friend Mandy. After Mandy sees that Schmutz’s paintings are each of the colors of the wordless book, she tells Schmutz the gospel.
Puppets Needed
- Boy Puppet: Schmutz
- Girl Puppet: Mandy
Props
- A gold (or yellow), black, red, white, and green piece of paper.
- Clips to attach the colored papers onto the top of the stage curtain.
Tips
- Whenever the puppet says “three days,” have your hand shoot up above the curtain with three fingers raised. Kids think it’s absolutely hilarious.
- We’ve used the Wordless Book Song and Jesus Is The Good News as the song the puppets dance to.
- End the song early if you don’t want to add an extra five minutes to the puppet show.
Video
You can watch this performance of the puppet show to get ideas on how you should create your version of it. And yes. Sorry. The video is a little shaky, and the kids are loud. We filmed it during one of our Good News Clubs.
Script
Music starts and the puppets dance and do the motions. Then they fall back behind the curtain again when the song ends.
Mandy pops over the edge, but Schmutz stays hidden.
Mandy: Schmutz, we’ve had a big introduction. Why don’t you come out?
Schmutz: (excited/embarrassed) I’m embarrassed.
Mandy: You don’t have to be embarrassed. Come on out. Let everyone see you.
Schmutz: (laughing nervously) Hi Mandy. I’ve been to Art Camp. I’ve been working on some projects.
Mandy: What sort of projects?
Schmutz: Well I… I made you some pictures…
Mandy: For me. Well Schmutz, I’m honored.
Schmutz: It’s really hard to do pictures when you have fingers like a frog!
Mandy: I understand…
Schmutz: Here’s the first one… (gives her a black paper)
Mandy: What color is this, kids? (wait for response) Wow, you used a lot of black.
Schmutz: This is from my dark period. I go through long dark periods.
Mandy: Here, let’s hang it up so everyone can see it. (puppet or human assistant pins it to stage curtain)
Schmutz: The teacher told us, ‘Just close your eyes, and draw whatever you see.’ I call it “Nothing.”
Mandy: I see that now.
Schmutz: (embarrassed) I made another one for you. Here. (hands her a red
page)
Mandy: What color is this, kids? (wait for response, assistant pins paper to curtain)
Schmutz: My art teacher said I could try something with a bit more color. (Nervous) I did the best I could…
Mandy: (giving him a comforting pat) It’s nice Schmutz.
Schmutz: It’s actually Kool-Aid in my favorite flavor.
Mandy: What’s your favorite flavor?
Schmutz: Red. I love the taste of red. Here’s the next one. (hands her a white page)
Mandy: (looks on both sides) Thanks. This one is a bit difficult to find.
Schmutz: No, it’s on the other side.
Mandy: Oh, right. What color is this, kids? (wait for response, assistant pins paper to curtain)
Schmutz: Yeah. I wanted to do something totally different. I call it “Polar Bear in a Snow Drift.”
Mandy: Definitely different.
Schmutz: Hang it up right here. See the juxtaposition of the abstract pattern shift of the first to the unilateral third?
Mandy: What are you talking about?
Schmutz: I don’t know. That’s what my art teacher said.
Mandy: Art teachers are that way sometimes.
Schmutz: Here’s the next one. (page colored entirely green)
Mandy: Okay. What color is this, kids? (wait for response, assistant pins paper to curtain)
Schmutz: This is called “How My Front Lawn Looks to the Birds.”
Mandy: I can see that. But aren’t birds color-blind?
Schmutz: Ah, but it doesn’t matter if they’re wearing green sunglasses. Okay, here’s the last one. (paper painted entirely gold)
Mandy: What color is this one, kids? (wait for response, assistant pins paper to curtain)
Schmutz: How’d you know?
Mandy: That’s what color it is.
Schmutz: Oh.
Mandy: So what is this a picture of?
Schmutz: Gold… A big bar of it… Close up…
Mandy: Do you know, Schmutz? All of these pictures kind of tell a story.
Schmutz: A story? Is it a story about small puppets on the brink of despair going to art camp?
Mandy: No, a different story. The Gold picture here reminds me of heaven. There, the streets are made of gold. Nobody is ever sick, and nobody ever dies. Everyone in heaven will be perfectly happy forever. And God the Father will be there, and best of all, His Son, Jesus.
Schmutz: Wow, I’d like to go there. I’d like to be perfectly happy.
Mandy: For that, we’ll have to go to the beginning of the story. To your Dark Period. It’s dark because of sin. Sin is wanting to go your own way. It’s anything you think, say, or do that displeases God or breaks his law. Sin separates us from God because God is perfectly right. Sin has to be punished, and that punishment is separation from God forever.
Schmutz: Oh no!
Mandy: But there’s good news, Schmutz! God knows that you can never be good enough, and since He loves us so much, He sent His own Son Jesus to make a way to be forgiven.
Schmutz: What’s that?
Mandy: Well that leads us to your red picture. Red reminds me of something special.
Schmutz: Kool-Aid.
Mandy: It reminds you of Kool-Aid. It reminds me of the blood of Jesus. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Jesus took the punishment of death. He suffered on the cross and said with a loud voice, “It is Finished.” Then He died. He wasn’t talking about His life being finished. He was talking about sin being paid for. And three days later, he rose again from the dead all by himself.
Schmutz: With no doctors?
Mandy: Doctors can’t raise somebody from the dead. They can jumpstart somebody’s heart if they get there on time. But Jesus was in the ground for 3 days!
Schmutz: Then what happened?
Mandy: That’s the clean paper. The Bible says that God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son so that whoever believed in Him will not perish for their sins, but have everlasting life, John 3:16. Believe in His Son Jesus, and what He did on the cross. You too can be saved and be made as white as snow. He will clean your heart and will give you the power to do right.
Schmutz: And the Green?
Mandy: The green reminds me of plants and trees and grass that are growing. God wants us to grow as Christians. There are lots of things that help us Grow. Did you know that each letter in the word grow stands for ways that we can get to know God better? “G” stands for ‘Gather with other believers.’ “R” stands for ‘Read your Bible and pray.’ “O” is for ‘Obey God.’ “W,” ‘Witness: tell others about Jesus.’
As we grow in Him, not only is our heart changed. The things we think and say and do are changed. And that brings us to the Gold again when we finally see Jesus and get to go to heaven.
Schmutz: That’s a good story, Mandy. It reminds me of a Bible verse my Sunday School Teacher told me. First Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” I think I’ll color some more pictures so you can tell me even more stories!
Mandy: Okay. Bye, Schmutz!
Optional: Have the puppets dance to the song again.
* The modified version of this script was created and published with permission. You can find the original script at PuppetResources.com.