All Things New: Holy Week Through the Eyes of a Child
By: Heather Strube, Head of School
In the gospels, Jesus said that we need to become like children to enter into the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18 & Luke 18). These words ring loud and true in my heart, and it has been a regular practice of mine to consider what it means to "become like a child" as we travel through the church calendar. What does it mean to see and experience Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday (and more!) through the eyes of a child?
In my desire to “become like a child,” I am discovering that listening to and watching children during our chapels is a formative experience for me. Their questions and their expressions of wonder as they listen to Scripture have challenged me. Maybe they will challenge you too.
Last week, the kindergartners, first graders, and second graders listened to a paraphrase of Revelation 21: I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” . . .
“Look! I’m making everything new.”
Our chapel speaker shared another passage with us from Isaiah 11: "The wolf will lie down with the lamb, calf and lion will eat from the same feeding tray . . . and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens, the toddler will stick his hand down the hole of a serpent. Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill on My holy mountain. The whole earth will be brimming with knowing The Living God."
You could not hold back the children's energetic responses as they expressed that this is NOT the way life is now…
"My baby brother does not stick his hand down a snake hole."
"Calves are food for lions--they don't eat together!"
“Wolves and lambs do not play together--they are enemies!"
There was also curiosity and hope. "Wow, will it really be like this someday?" "Will I get to play with these animals too?" : ) Yes, “He will make everything new.”
Their responses to Scripture were honest, curious, and full of awe. And the Holy Spirit prompted my heart that perhaps this is what it would look like to "become like a child" this Easter. Our children's responses have challenged me to sit more in imaginative wonder of what it will be like when God will make His home permanently with us.
"He will make everything new!"
Wherever we find ourselves as Lent comes to a close, whether it is in church services, at dinner tables, or reading Scripture together in living rooms with our family, my prayer is that we will follow the example of children and respond: "Wow, has The Living God really done all of this for us?"