Friday, March 25, 2016

Holy Week with the Kids

Last Saturday our amazing director of children and family ministries Kate invited families to join her at church to make candle holders for Holy Week. She also gave us a stack of cards with a story for each day. Some day we have been a bit rushed, squeezing it in between dinner and bedtime, but we have managed to read a story and light candles every day this week. I've given the kids the option of also adding something to our lenten table, and every day has been a bit different, Here are the highlights.

 

Palm Sunday is the story the kids were most familiar with having run down the center aisle of the sanctuary at church waving palms earlier that morning. We added our palms and palm crosses to the table.

Monday we told the story of Jesus chasing the money changers out of the temple. Since Kate left out the dramatic line "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers," we took the time to look up this story in a Bible.

Wednesday we told the story of Judas planning his betrayal. At church on Sunday, Alessia and Olivia had heard the story of Maundy Thursday. Alessia's comment was "Oh, Judas" while shaking her head back and forth. I don't know what they said about Judas, but obviously it made an impression. So we sat for a bit after this story. The other objects in our lenten table told the story of God's creation and God's love for creation. God made Judas too, I told Alessia, and God loved Judas too, even though Judas made a really big mistake.

Good Friday's story is a tough one. Personally I cry every year at church on Good Friday. Alessia read the story card before we sat down and at first she tried to avoid us reading it together. We read it though, then we wondered what to put on the table. I got one of the plastic eggs Alessia had been given at school. I asked Alessia if she remembed when she first saw the eggs in the incubator at school. It was a bit of a mystery what was inside, and it was dark inside. I told them that some people think an egg is like a tomb, round and dark inside. What happened after waiting a few days at school? "Pop!" Alessia exclaimed. (There's a mental image for you, eh? Jesus popping out of the tomb.) So now we wait a few days, I told them. Today is the sad part of the story, but we know Easter is coming. And off we went to paint Easter eggs.

 

 

 

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