Easter is the kind of celebration we're good at in America. Feasting, being happy, dressing up in the latest fashions, loads of candy, etc. Good Friday is a little harder. It's not natural to us to deliberately choose a day of somber reflection and sacrifice. So how do you observe this holiday as a family, without it being too heavy for the kids?
Our new church came through with an awesome solution. The service was structured as a version of the stations of the cross, and you would travel through the candlelit church with a small group under the direction of a guide who would read the reflection at each station. Our guide was a great older guy with a deep, resonant voice and calming demeanor. Perfect. Each station's focus was a poster done by each children's Sunday school class and reflected their interpretation. Anna's class's was "Jesus was put on the cross" - the children colored a paper cross and pasted it on the poster, then they dipped their hands in paint and put their handprints on it. One class was "Jesus was arrested" and they saw fit to draw a police car and handcuffs. My favorite, the toddlers', was "The women mourned for Jesus" or something like that - they pasted pictures of women they had cut out from magazines, and the collage included Sarah Jessica Parker and Miley Cyrus. The High School had a very political theme with mob scenes and such. There were also tactile items as well, like a crown of thorns, etc. I can't describe the balance achieved between reflection and interaction, contemplation and yet not depression.
My kids were perfectly behaved. Anna was very engaged. At one point I asked her if she was ok (long evening of walking and standing around) and she whispered back "Mommy, I am SO sad! This is the saddest thing I've seen in my life!"
I was touched, and yet concerned that I had overloaded her. Afterwards, our guide smiled, bent down and spoke to her on the way out saying, "You know there is a happy part coming on Easter, right?" She nodded and told him that Jesus rose again. On Sunday, amid bright sunshine he saw her and made a point of saying, "I told you the happy part was coming!"
She knew though. On the way home on Friday she mentioned that it was also happy that Jesus loved so much that he would die like that so that we could be forgiven.
We tend to want to shelter our children from sad things. We are good at celebrating with them, and not always good at finding ways to break the not-so-happy news in life to them. Yet we sometimes fail to show that often celebration is possible because of sacrifice. And they are much more capable of understanding than we give them credit for.
At this point, I must tell a funny story about my dear nephew Collin. We were on a long car trip with him when he and Molly were 5. They were playing a version of pictionary in the back seat. Molly had drawn "Jesus on the cross'', and Collin guessed it. On Collin's immediately next turn, he must have started to draw something similar because Molly promptly called out "Jesus on the cross." Collin said no, continued to draw, and stumped Molly. Jeff and I got in on the game, and were completely puzzled too. "Collin, that sure looks like Jesus on the cross. Are you sure it's not?" Finally we gave up and Collin shouted "It's Auntie Tiff on the cross!"
I relayed this story to my friend Courtney, who had met and liked Collin and always enjoyed a good story involving him.
The church we were attending at the time had a very interactive stations of the cross set up that year on Good Friday. Courtney was about to enter the room where it was set up and saw me, lying on a wooden cross (this station required that you lie on a wooden cross and think about what it must have been like for Jesus). She immediately thought "Auntie Tiff on the cross!" and her attitude of serious reflection was ruined.
Hope you had a blessed Easter weekend!
1 comment:
Love, love, love that Auntie Tiff story! And, I think you do such a great job of imparting important stuff to your kids. And, you have awesome kids.
Post a Comment