Hi Penny,
What strikes me MOST is that the two stories come one right after the other, and then what comes IMMEDIATELY after them. Apart from their particular details and interesting differences, together they are intended to leave the reader with their mouth and eyes wide open. Jesus can heal with a word and a touch.
But to me, the real lesson, apart from the power and compassion of Jesus that they demonstrate, comes in the verses which come AFTER these two back-to-back stories in Luke, namely, verses 18 and 19: "ARE YOU THE ONE?"
What's interesting, is that Jesus' speech there points out the inability of miracles to convince anyone. He had just raised a boy from the dead! And yet, even John the Baptist has to send disciples to ask if Jesus is "the one" !! Jesus answers in the affirmative but then "calls out" the "people of this generation" who reject both him and John (like children ridiculing in the street), even though both were obviously sent from God. --Which is to say, most people aren't convinced by miracles. Miracles are signs to those who can read them, but which most people ignore. Why do people ignore the signs? Probably because they know that if "God is real, and here," that they will have to take God seriously, and start making changes in their life. --And people don't like doing that. They'd rather pretend Jesus and his signs are not for real.
I went through this exegesis because that's how I'm often led to creative ideas. And in this case, it led me to the idea of SIGNS. What signs could kids make to bring people's attention to the reality of Jesus all around them? What "captions" could be put with all the common signs we see around us every day, i.e. "repurpose" them to point us to Jesus, and how we are to serve him...
"Stop look and listen"
"Cross" walk
"Slow down"
"Extra-mile marker"
Fuel ahead
Bumpy road ahead....fasten you faith-belt.
etc
You can print "sign blanks" from the internet.
Hope this inspires some creative thoughts for you.