Thursday, April 5, 2012

Bread, Tea, and a Prayer

When you celebrate holidays differently than other people, sometimes it's hard figuring out how we do want to celebrate, and make it meaningful for our family. We are still in the beginning stages of shaping our traditions and celebrations. We don't ever want the focus to be on what we don't do, but rather what we DO to celebrate each spiritual holiday.
Before kids, I never really thought about all the events leading up to Christ's death and resurrection. Sure I knew about them, but I just kept on with my life and when Easter Day (or Resurrection Sunday as I like to call it) rolled around I spent my hour or two being especially grateful for Jesus' sacrifice. How sad it that? Well, Jesus has been messing with us for the last few years. It's why we do so many things differently. It's why we try to take out the distractions that can get in the way.
Today is considered the day in Holy Week when Jesus ate his last supper with his disciples. Then he went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. It's when his disciples kept falling asleep and when Judas betrayed him. So to help Seth understand a little bit better and a great reminder to us as well, we went to one of the more wooded parks in town and had bread and tea. What did Jesus drink with His last supper? Wine. What do we drink with most of our meals? Sweet tea. So sweet tea it was, and it was a special treat for Seth.
We used two different books to help us illustrate why we were in the woods. We love the Read with Me Bible for Toddlers and have been using it for a long time. We also recently bought The Usborne Book of Bible Stories. It is a wonderful resource!
After we ate our bread and tea, we walked farther into the woods. Seth already knew that Jesus went to pray in the garden, but I think this really helped him understand even more. Just as raindrops started to fall, we stopped to pray. It was so sweet.
It was definitely one of those moments that we don't want to forget,
 and it will definitely be repeated in years to come. 

1 comment:

  1. Love this! A few years ago, we began celebrating Easter with a Passover Sedar meal. It has been a really special tradition that reminds us what we are really celebrating.

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