It’s hard enough focusing kids on the religious significance of Christmas, amid all the greed-inducing hoopla about Santa, but it doesn’t hold an Easter candle to the Resurrection, with the bunny hopping around at the same time.
Christmas translates to a child’s mind, because they warm quickly to the idea of celebrating Jesus’ birthday. That makes it easier to turn their heads from Santa and piles of presents.
Then comes Easter, marking an even greater miracle than God becoming man: a god/man rising from the dead. When you tell young children that Easter celebrates Jesus’ Resurrection, be prepared for questions about why he died in the first place.
Melissa and Skip are big on making sure that the Four Children of the Apocalyptic toy pile DO know the religious meaning of these holidays. I’m not quite sure how they explained the Easter saga, but I found Jack’s reaction to the slightly erroneous explanation he picked up from a lesson at his Christian preschool jarringly frank and honest, as well as providing a theologically profound teaching moment.
“Mommy,” the 5-year-old said, “I just don’t understand why God would kill his son. That just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
I suppose I could write that off to Jack’s middle name of Thomas, making him a doubting Jack Thomas, but I think most of us have trouble wrapping our heads around the Resurrection, too.
Of course, we know God didn’t set out to kill his son, but we humans drove him to do so, to save us from ourselves. (Next time your kids or grandkids are driving you bonkers, you might put yourself in God’s place, having to deal with the shenanigans we humans pull.)
But the teaching moment is to tell the ankle biters that God sent his only son, and his only son embraced his painful and horrific death (with some misgivings when his human side voiced some balking prayers during his final prayers in the garden) because God loves us that much.
And, of course, GOD didn’t kill his son; our sins did. He died to wipe our slate clean, and he rose from the dead in a majestic victory over Satan and his works.
So, although Jack thought God didn’t know jack when this whole thing went down, he will come to understand more and more as he grows older and comes to know Jesus better that God loves him to pieces. Enough to let his son die for us. (Next time your kids or grandkids are driving you bonkers, you might reflect God’s love and turn that frown upside down in a loving smile.)
So it is that we celebrate Easter, Jesus’ victory over death, and his incredibly loving act of bestowing grace upon us.
Without mentioning any denominations, I would footnote that some folks often seem to miss the point of Easter, dwelling on the Crucifixion. They just won’t let Jesus off the cross.
On the other hand, some folks, most notably the Fellowship of Merry Christians (check the group out at http://www.joyfulnoiseletter.com/), recognize the pure joy of the day and like to mark Easter with holy humor. After all, they reason, Jesus’ Resurrection is the best practical joke EVER, with Satan the victim.
I bet Satan gnashes his teeth more than ever on Easter.
I haven’t kept a very good log of my grandkids funny sayings of late, but I would like to end this on a humorous note with a religious twist as well. And I just happen to have received a bunch of kids’ religious reflections via cyberspace. I’d credit whoever gathered the quotes (I could swear that some of them are jokes in themselves that I’ve heard) but cyberspace often is so anonymous. (I just wanted to make it clear that I’m not plagiarizing purposely, as that’s the kind of theft that contributed to Jesus’ pain.)
Sooooooo, in the spirit of the day, I offer these anecdotes about kids in church:
* 3-year-old Reese renders this malapropped version of the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is His name. Amen.”
* A little boy was overheard praying: 'Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am.”
* After the christening of his baby brother in church,
Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.
His father asked him three times what was wrong.
Finally, the boy replied, “That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys.”
* Another prayerful malaprop from a 4-year-old — “And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.”
* A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they
were on the way to church service, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?”
An observant, and honest-to-a-fault little girl replied, “Because people are sleeping.”
* A woman was preparing pancakes for her sons, 5-year-old Kevin and 3-year-old Ryan, when the lads began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
The mom saw the opportunity for a moral lesson, so she said, “If Jesus were sitting here, he would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.' ”
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, “Ryan, you be Jesus!”
* A man was at the beach with his children when the 4-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand.
“Daddy, what happened to him?” the son asked.
“He died and went to heaven,” the dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said,
“Did God throw him back down?”
*And we’ll wrap it up with another reflection of why we have to be careful what we say around young ears.
A woman who had invited several people to dinner turned to her 6-year-old daughter and said, “Would you like to say the blessing?”
“ I wouldn't know what to say,” the girl replied.
“Just say what you hear Mommy say,” the woman answered.
So the girl bowed her head and said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?”
Ba-da-BUMP. That could be the last supper the girl is asked to pray, eh?
Again, Happy Easter out there. May the awesome grace of a loving God be with you.
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