I looked across the lunch table in my preschool class and noticed a little girl with tears streaming down her cheeks. She was quiet, but obviously something or someone had upset her.
I knelt beside her in the middle of the noisy chattering group of 4 year olds and asked why she was crying. She pointed to her friend sitting next to her and said, "She said that Jesus is gonna die on Easter! I don't want Easter to come!"
I hugged her and said that her friend made a little mistake and that on Easter, Jesus is alive and that's what Easter is all about. About Jesus being alive and not dead at all! By this time the whole class was quiet and listening to me. She smiled and said she felt better now.
Our preschool is a Christian school but we don't talk about Bible stories much in my class. I did make an exception this last week though. I told a story of a little girl with brown hair, brown eyes and freckles on her nose named Susie. Our Circle Time true story was about the Sunday many years ago when the little brown haired girl came running and shouting into her parents arms in a church sanctuary, yelling, "Mommy, he's alive, he's alive!!"
My mother told me this story about when I was only 3 or 4 and a Sunday School teacher must have somehow got the message across to us little ones with clarity. I don't remember this moment, but I love it.
Today my main big thought is simply that He is alive. Jesus is alive! I will admit that I do not feel Him as clearly as I did years ago, but I still know and believe that He is alive in me.
When so much around us is negative news, this is the good news. The BEST news. I am sitting here in my living room feeling weepy, listening to Keith Green and 2nd Chapter of Acts ( I am old, you guys. Whatever).
In a few minutes I will get in my little yellow truck and drive around the corner to the sweet Methodist church behind my house. I will bask in the gentle music and smiling faces. I will rejoice in the knowing that He is alive.
Happy Easter y'all. (Yeah, I said Y'all.)
Susie
UPDATE: I am home from the Easter service and this time it was my turn to be the quiet one with tears streaming down her cheeks. But my tears were an overflow of thankfulness for my Jesus. He knows me, loves me and is alive today. In the people around me and in the swaying trees in my backyard that I am looking at just now as I sit in my yard and tap these keys.
Once again I choose belief, I choose faith, I choose to trust the unseen; illogical and fanciful though it may seem. I choose Him. It is so simple and so complicated. But here I am choosing faith.
Here I am quietly shouting, "He is alive. He is alive!"
3 comments:
Yes, He IS Alive!! Praise God!! Jesus Christ is risen indeed!! And because He lives, we too shall live!!! Isn't that a wonderful hope and blessing? Thank you for sharing this wonderful story today...and yes, I love the 2nd chapter of Acts and Keith Green too..."hear the bells ringing, they're singing Christ is risen from the dead..." We may be old, but we have that precious truth living down in our hearts, and it bubbles up to the brim and overflows especially at Easter time...so wonderful. So glad you share that with your sweet little class. They need to know that Jesus is alive, and that He lives in them... You know what else is interesting? We now also attend a "sweet Methodist" church, the one where our son was married last fall. I have loved going back to my roots and have such a greater appreciation for the liturgy and beauty of the words spoken and affirmation of my faith clearly stated...it has been a healing and cleansing experience for me. Have a beautiful day and week, sweet friend. Jesus is alive!!
Susie: Last Sunday, our pastor's sermon title was, "No Fooling. . . He's Alive." The book we are studying in Sunday school says that we, if we believe in the risen Savior, are Easter people. Sound great to me!
He is!
I am your newest follower. :) BUT...I followed your other blog for a long time, so we kinda know eachother!
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