We here at Intermountain hope you had a glorious Passover and Easter season. We just finished up celebrating both holidays with great fanfare and excitement. Our Jewish Educator, Janet Tatz, held a “mini-Seder” on March 28th for all our children and a fair number of staff and adult guests. Our Easter Celebration was held at 10 am Easter morning with over 60 in attendance.
Much of what we spoke about in our lessons leading up to Easter focused on how Easter and its message is a reality here and now… It is not just the celebration of a historic event. Jesus taught his followers to realize their impact on other people’s lives—to love one another, to care for their neighbors, to pray for those they disagreed with or had been hurt by, and to see each act of service as something offered to God. In the place of an Easter sermon, the children read a Reader’s Theater adaptation I did of a favorite short story of mine—Walter Wangerin’s “The Ragman.” It is a modern retelling of the gospel and was very helpful in expanding the imaginations of our children to see how and where Jesus is active today.
In the middle of our presentation of this story on Sunday, one of the young men in residence sang a solo to Brandon Heath’s recent song called “Jesus in Disguise.” Part of the lyric goes like this: “Jesus in disguise, Jehovah passing by. You were looking for a King, and would never recognize… Jesus in disguise.”
It was sung beautifully on Sunday… I wish I could share that recording with you. However, I can share part of the experience with you. The children were asked to draw pictures of how they envisioned Jesus. Some drew something quite literal—an image of what they see Jesus looking like. Both the heart picture and the multi-colored cross show that the children have caught the message of Easter: they are LOVED.
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