Surprise!!! Jesus is ALIVE!

Today is Easter Sunday. It just so happened that it was my turn to "do" Children's Church so I wasn't in regular services....instead I had a lesson to do with the 2 and 3 year olds. Usually we have 6 or 7 kids in there but today, with it being a Holiday weekend, some families were traveling so the class was small.

I really like the preschool class but sometimes the material is a little to advanced for them. Today was one of those days. :)

We have really nice lesson plans broken up into a game, bible memory verse, puppet show, bible story, craft and snack. It is very organized...on paper that is.

I had three little girls and one little boy. It was the little boys first time coming to Children's Church....ever. He has never even gone to Sunday School so his parents were a little concerned that he wouldn't do well. He did great. One little girl cries bitterly whenever her parents bring her back and as soon as they shake her off their leg and the door closes it is like the OFF switch and she is fine for the rest of the class. But it is always a little dicey at first. The other two girls are troopers. They never cry. They never fight. They never misbehave. Ever.

So I started out with the game. Today we were supposed to make a sign that said BIG and a sign that said LITTLE and give some scenarios that the kids were supposed to listen to then stand under the BIG sign or the LITTLE sign if they thought it was a big or little surprise. Ummm. Did I mention that they were 2 and 3?

So I just decided we would talk about the scenarios. Here is an excerpt...."Let's talk about surprises...did anyone have any surprises this week?" (Crickets chirping) "Did anybody get any surprises this morning?" (Crickets chirping) "Anyone?" Finally....a little voice said "I ika ped da abee haffs". Umm. "Oh yeah, me too (I think)." Translation...maybe..."I like to pet the baby calves." Not sure but that's what I went with. OK...back to surprises...."What if somebody popped a balloon right behind you....would that be a big surprise or a little surprise?" (Crickets) "How about if your Grandpa and Grandma came for a visit?" A different little voice..."I haff dat...uhhuh me do" Um....ok. "Good...thank you Ruthie" (Later I find out that her Grandpa and Grandma actually were here for Easter and perhaps that is what she was getting at. :) Anyway...you get the drift. The whole point was to get to the SURPRISE of Jesus not being in the tomb when the women came and saw the stone was rolled away. It wasn't really working for us.

So....we moved on to the story. The lesson plan was to review last week when they must have talked about Jesus being betrayed and going to the cross. It is age appropriate and short and sweet but while I was reviewing that Jesus wasn't liked by some people and they had him arrested....little Ruthie's chin started to tremble and her little mouth had turned in to a profound frown. I quickly said....but it was all ok because even though Jesus died on the cross and was put in the tomb...he came back to life and will live forever. Well, Ruthie couldn't take it and it was just too sad and she started to cry. Oh man. In this group it is totally like dominoes when someone starts to cry and ask for their mom. Ruthie is one of my solid little girls too so it was totally out of character.

Ruthie's Dad came and took her out for a couple of minutes....I quickly finished up the story and we moved on to the craft. Stringing beads onto pipe cleaners. :) Fun. Pretty soon Ruthie came back in...sniffling every few seconds, but she very bravely and quietly said "I sorry." and started on her craft. I love little Ruthie. And it IS sad that some people didn't like Jesus and made fun of him and hung him on a cross. I totally remember being very sad and very mad about that very thing when I was a kid. It is a hard concept to grasp that HE did it for us and that it fulfilled the plan perfectly.

But when you are 3 years old.....and tenderhearted....hearing that Jesus wasn't liked and died on the cross is a little hard to take.

Shoot. It is kind of still hard to take when you are 45!