Easter
I hope that everyone had an amazing Easter weekend. For the first time ever, I attended a vigil service and I strongly recommended it to anyone as it was helpful in my welcoming Easter in before I faced the pomp and circumstance and busyness and noise of the worship service I attended in a local basketball arena on Sunday morning. The vigil service allowed me to be more reflective and meditative in worship which I appreciate and seek to provide for others when I am part of worship.
I have a two year old son whose bright-eyed wonder and creativity amaze me on a daily basis and inspire me in how I live out my faith in Jesus Christ. My wife and I, both preparing to be ministers ourselves, want to instill the true meanings of the holidays we celebrate throughout the year. With Christmas, for example, we work hard at keeping Christ in the center of how we speak about and celebrate during the holidays. For the most part, I believe my son gets the concept of Jesus being born to Mary and Joseph on Christmas morning. I also believe he will continue to understand the magnitude of this birth as he develops and matures. Easter, however, is a whole other bag of worms. I really did not comprehend how difficult it would be to try and explain, in two-year-old terminology, the trial, torture, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it is that we celebrate on Easter morning. Resurrection is hard enough for most adults in current culture to swallow, imagine trying to assist a two year old in understanding it. So I decided I would not try and interpret it, that I would simply tell him that what we celebrate at Easter is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that in that resurrection we are assured of life eternal. I decided to honor him by not attempting to sugar-coat it. I did not go into the gory details but simply stated that Jesus died and came back from the dead to assure us of his victory, our victory over sin and death. I am not sure he understood the concept but it was nice to hear him correctly identify the bearded figure emerging from the tomb in the coloring book provided at the Sunday morning service as "Jeee-sus!" That will do for now.
I have a two year old son whose bright-eyed wonder and creativity amaze me on a daily basis and inspire me in how I live out my faith in Jesus Christ. My wife and I, both preparing to be ministers ourselves, want to instill the true meanings of the holidays we celebrate throughout the year. With Christmas, for example, we work hard at keeping Christ in the center of how we speak about and celebrate during the holidays. For the most part, I believe my son gets the concept of Jesus being born to Mary and Joseph on Christmas morning. I also believe he will continue to understand the magnitude of this birth as he develops and matures. Easter, however, is a whole other bag of worms. I really did not comprehend how difficult it would be to try and explain, in two-year-old terminology, the trial, torture, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it is that we celebrate on Easter morning. Resurrection is hard enough for most adults in current culture to swallow, imagine trying to assist a two year old in understanding it. So I decided I would not try and interpret it, that I would simply tell him that what we celebrate at Easter is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that in that resurrection we are assured of life eternal. I decided to honor him by not attempting to sugar-coat it. I did not go into the gory details but simply stated that Jesus died and came back from the dead to assure us of his victory, our victory over sin and death. I am not sure he understood the concept but it was nice to hear him correctly identify the bearded figure emerging from the tomb in the coloring book provided at the Sunday morning service as "Jeee-sus!" That will do for now.
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