I have been questioning lately, especially with C, if I am an effective parent. She is in a 'lying' stage and I am at my wits end with her (not to mention the stubborn and bullheaded behavior). Also, she took communion for the first time on Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday for my Catholic readers) and Hubster and I were conflicted about this. He felt she wasn't quite ready and I vacillated between letting her and not being sure she got the whole idea. I questioned whether I was getting through to her about the real meaning of Easter and if I spent too much time on the Bunny aspect.
And then, we went to church on Good Friday. It was a service unlike anything else I have ever experienced. It was competely put on by the high school youth and it was, hands down, the most moving and absolutely spectacular Good Friday service I have ever attended. It was touching, dramatic and thought provoking. It kept not only the kid's attention but also the adults. (On a side note, S & I have had almost daily discussions on various parts of the service. I love this!)
During the service, whenever the lights came on, C would hurriedly draw in her notebook. She does this quite frequently and I have many notes of "I love my family" or "I love my dog". But on Good Friday, this is what she drew. A crude drawing of a cross, with a person drawn on it. The person had a cross on his forehead and a very large frown on their face. When I asked her about it, she said "Well, that's Jesus. And he's not happy to be on that cross but he does it because God asked him and he loves us. Mama, it makes me really sad that he had to die."
I was astonished. She gets it! She didn't understand all the layers of course, but she got the main idea.
Then, this last Sunday, she was working on another 'masterpiece'. She kept asking me how to spell things and when she finished, this is what her paper said.
"What is Easter? Easter is a time of love and giving God a prayer. Easter is God and us."
I guess my question of whether we were approaching Easter in the right way was answered by 2 pieces of paper.
Wow!
p.s. I think she mostly gets it. When, on Easter, they opened the box that contained the Alleluia banners the kids made and packed away on Ash Wednesday, the banners weren't in the box. They were held up by various congregation members. The lesson: You can't contain the goodness of God and the lessons of Easter.
When C came back to the pew after this lesson, she whispered to me "I think that tricky Easter Bunny must have been here and hid those banners just like he did the eggs at our house!"
I guess we'll just face it one bunny step at a time.
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