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| Holy Week...The Week Leading to Easter |  |
| Location: Blogs Leanne's Blog |
 | | Posted by: Leanne | 3/16/2008 8:09 PM | Holy Week began today, Palm Sunday. During this week, Christians will remember the last days of Jesus' life. We remember how he entered Jerusalem on a donkey when people picked up palm branches and sang songs of praise to him. But then... the story gets sad! Many parents shy away from sharing the sad parts of this story with their children...but I think this is a mistake!
Following Palm Sunday, Jesus ate dinner with his friends for the last time. He told them goodbye and it was a sad occasion.
Then Jesus went to a garden and prayed and it was there he was arrested. The saddest moment is when he realized his own friend had betrayed him!
Then Jesus was unjustly tried and sentenced to death. He hung on a cross and died. I don't need to highlight the sorrow of this story.
I think the reason this story is so powerful is that it, not only tells the story of the last days of Christ, but also because it contains many emotional trials we face each day. We know what it feels like to say goodbye to people we love. We know what it feels like to be betrayed by someone who supposedly loved us. We know what it feels like to be unjustly accused. And we have all experienced suffering!
Our children, as much as we would like to pretend they do not, experience hardships. And they can, certainly, also relate to this story. Like us, they know what it feels like to say goodbye to their loved ones, to be betrayed by friends (it happens everyday on the playground!), to be unjustly accused and they know what suffering feels like.
Telling them this story helps them know that Jesus also experienced these difficult feelings and they know he will listen, care and understand their prayers about them.
But...remember this is not the end of this story! After this sad week we celebrate Easter! Easter proclaims that even in the darkness of death, God's light and power still shines and shatters even our darkest moments. And...THIS is the message our children need to hear over and over! They know what sorrow, darkness and sadness is and they need to hear this story because it reminds them that the light shines and that when they are experiencing pain and sadness they can wait for the light to shatter it.
This is "hope" and if there is any gift we can give our children, it is hope! I wish we, as parents and adults in their lives, could shelter our children from anything and everything that would make them sad. But we can't. There are far too many things we can't control. We are not always with them to shelter them from hurtful words and actions of others.
What we can do is teach them this sacred story and remind them that after every storm, the sun breaks through! Teach this story to your children and when they face darkness, may they remember it and wait...for the light to shine in the darkness, for the resurrection to break through even the darkest death!
I pray we won't shelter our children from this story, but teach it to them--it is a great gift!
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