The Acacia Community

by Cassie Nason

To make of his story something that could neither startle, nor shock, nor terrify, nor excite, nor inspire a living soul is to crucify the Son of God afresh.     Dorothy Sayers / Bread and Wine                           

We have two small plastic cups near the window in the 1st grade classroom.  Inside are six small chrysalises hanging suspended from the top of cup.  Days before they were squirming caterpillars, and days from now they will emerge as butterflies.  The kids in the class excitedly sidle up next to the cups, peering in, anxious to see if the “butterflies are ready yet”.  The transformation of caterpillar to butterfly is captivating.   The mystery of something so beautiful emerging from something so ugly and lifeless piques their imaginations.  I can hear it in the kids’ questions, “what’s going on in there?”, “what’s happened to the caterpillars?”, “have they died?”, “why are the butterflies taking so long?”.

Even the slow turn from winter to spring holds that mysterious quality.   I can just now see the heads of the tulips in my yard begin to poke through the layer of dead leaves and grass and everyday my kids and I troop outside to see if they have bloomed yet.  It is a season of suspense. 

Children, instinctively curious, find great pleasure in noticing the secrets of this time of year.  From cocooned caterpillars to the budding of flowers, there is much to explore!  And the story of Easter, the climax of Jesus’ time on Earth, is a narrative ripe with the stuff of excitement and suspense.  At least for children.  Because children are not like us. If you are like me, you have spent too many Easter mornings sitting bored through church services wondering why this most important of celebrations feels anything but exciting.  Tim Keel writes that the church of today is experiencing a “crisis of imagination”.  As adults we have lost something along the way.  The story of Easter has become pedestrian.  So common and unremarkable that is ceases to hold us captive anymore.  We no longer wonder at the tragedy and brutality of the cross.  Or the mystery shrouding the dark days leading to the empty tomb. Or the elation at the earth-shattering realization that Jesus is not in fact dead at all, but alive.  We have forgotten how to read the Easter story.  A crisis of imagination. 

For me, I will always need to tell the Easter story to children.  I am sure it will be the only way to survive the doldrums of my adult mind.  I will always need to be reminded that climax of God on Earth is something only to be understood with the imagination of a child.

TO CONSIDER:  What are your memories of the easter season from your childhood?  How did your family or church approach the significance of the holiday?  How have your perceptions of Easter shifted as you’ve become an adult?  Do you feel there is something significant that a child grasps about Jesus & Easter that we may lose as we grow older?

TO READ:  Mark 10:13-16- Jesus & the Children   ||||  Matthew 21:12-46- Jesus in the Temple after Palm Sunday