Holy Week and Easter 2017!

This is several weeks late, but...

He is Risen!

HE IS RISEN, INDEED!

We've been extremely busy the last few weeks, so I'm trying to get in gear and catch up on our life chronicling. 

We had a really good holy week. Both of the girls thoroughly enjoyed Palm Sunday. Like our previous two churches, Blacknall also does a Palm Sunday procession into the sanctuary! For those of us who did not grow up with this tradition, the first time we participate, it feels so odd; a little silly, really fun, very significant. Everyone gathers outside the sanctuary before the service, and then we all enter together, singing and waving palm branches, much like those who welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem just days before his crucifixion. Incidentally, many churches save the palm branches from Palm Sunday to burn for the ashes needed for the following Ash Wednesday.

Claire is old hat at Palm Sunday branch-waving at this point (she still loves it), and Lily has now been initiated. We gave her a single leaf off of one of our branches, and she knew what to do with it immediately. She held onto her little leaf the whole morning (and got very stressed when she accidentally dropped it). Thanks to our Resurrection Eggs + Claire's incredible Sunday school class teachers and curriculum (they had "practiced" for Palm Sunday the week before!), she understood why we were doing what we were doing. 

Lily and her leaf.

Our church has a Maundy Thursday service, but my parents and Amiee had just gotten in that day, so the girls and I didn't end up going (Brad and Amiee did). But we did all go to the Good Friday service. The Good Friday/Tenebrae services at all of the churches of our married life have been so very important to me. They all have me leaving the church and heading into Saturday in grief...which is exactly the point. 

The service is centered around a series of seven scripture readings (called lessons) of Jesus' trial and crucifixion. Blacknall actually does a dramatic reading of each lesson with volunteers from the church. It's really quite powerful; the readers and musicians all sit in the balcony where those of us on the first floor can't see them and move through the readings as the sanctuary becomes darker and darker. As part of the ambiance of the service, everything is removed from the front of the sanctuary (pulpit, flowers, chairs) except for a table with 7 candles, which are lit at the beginning. After each reading and accompanying song (some sung only by the choir and some sung by everyone), a candle is extinguished and the overhead lights are dimmed. During the 6th reading, everyone participates, as we reach the part where the crowd cries "Crucify!" and it's heartbreaking and humbling. After Jesus' final words on the cross, all the lights are extinguished, and we leave in silence. It's overwhelmingly sad (leaving such a void that only the hope of Easter can fill). 

We very much miss the incomparable Saturday Easter Vigil at Church of the Cross in Boston, there's no denying that, but I'm very happy with the structure of the Holy Week services at Blacknall. It's wonderful for shaping my heart at Easter. 

Holy Saturday was actually spent celebrating Lily's birthday and prepping for Easter. Claire and Amiee dyed eggs, we prepped for Sunday lunch, and we took my family to one of our favorite restaurants in Durham: Cosmic Cantina. Come visit, and we'll take you, too!

Dyeing eggs

Outside of Cosmic Cantina. These pictures were such a cute idea in my head, but the girls were struggling with the sun. Bless it.

Brad got up and went to the sunrise service while the rest of us slept a little longer. My mom is allergic to Easter lilies, so when we got to church, I showed her some of the Sunday school rooms that have the service piped through speakers so that she could still participate. Lily stayed with her, as it's usually her morning nap time, and we thought she might nap. Nope. But I think they had a good time anyway. Dad, Amiee, and Claire went into the service...and Brad and I headed to nursery, because, of course, it was our assigned day. That was a bummer, but it was a good celebration day, nonetheless. After church, we had lunch at home and invited a few friends to join, which made it even more fun (especially since they brought the BEST homemade cheesecake for dessert!). The girls enjoyed their Easter baskets (so did Brad, Amiee, and I...Mom is very good at Easter baskets, no matter how old we get!), and we saw Amiee off to the airport safely. 

We had a great Lenten season of preparing before a joyful and exciting Easter Sunday. Thanks for joining in on our journey! We'll do it again next year. :)

Happy Easter!

Don't mind my tired eyes. It's just a way of life these days.

I love this one!

The winning picture! Enjoy the outtakes:

Thank you for coming, family!

*Also, thanks for the photos to supplement mine, Amiee, Brad, and Mom!

Lent with Claire 2016: making connections

I'm definitely behind on my reflections on Lent, but I want to finish it out anyway. We were able to see Claire make so many connections during season. We could watch her mull things over, process topics we talked about  + songs we sing+ things we heard at church, and ask questions to sort things out in her mind. It was very encouraging and challenging. One of my favorite moments happened on a Sunday morning (it might have been Palm Sunday) when the responsive reading was from Revelation 7. She perked up as she listened to the words and told me that she KNEW this song! We weren't singing, but she recognized that the scripture was the same as in this song that we often sing at the end of our confession time during the service. We had started singing it with her at bedtime, because she mentioned how much she liked it. I often wonder how much she pays attention to what's going on in the service, so moments like that are a good gauge for me. 

She's also really been honing in on communion. She pays very close attention to the liturgy leading up to it and the process of serving and receiving communion. We've had several conversations about how frustrated she is at not being allowed to participate yet, and we've recently noticed that she has started to pretend that she is serving communion. Incidentally, she can quote the liturgy pretty accurately! It provides us with a great opportunity to talk with her about the gospel. 

I've been very thankful for how structured and intentional our church is about Lent, even for the children. It's a very supportive environment for facilitating these great conversations. I'm praying we can continue them well, despite Lent ending. 

Oh, and she's also really excited about Pentecost. They talk about it regularly in her Sunday school class, and I think she's expecting a party.

Lent with Claire: understanding sin + our Resurrection Eggs

We're continuing to have some really great conversations with Claire about our observation of Lent. She's asking great questions and making connections between different parts of the Easter story to one another, as well as making connections about things that we do in our daily lives because of the Easter story. 

However.

We had a conversation last week that was pretty telling about her understanding of sin. It went a little something like this:

Erin: What are some examples of sin, Claire?
Claire: Um...disobeying? 
Erin: That's right. And being unkind to Lily. Or saying things that aren't true. Or being ugly and disrespectful to Mommy and Daddy. Everybody does sinful things like this. Every single person except one. There's only be one person who never did those things. Do you know who that was?
Claire: Claire.

We, apparently, have some work to do in that department.

I thought I'd show you the insides of our Resurrection Eggs, in case you were wondering what our process looks like. Again, they're designed to be used in the days leading immediately up to Easter, but we start them at the beginning of Lent so that we can spend a few days on each one. I think it helps with such a young learner to have it repeated so much.

The set of Resurrection Eggs that we are using contains 12 eggs: 11 containing symbols and an empty one.

The contents.

1. Leaf. This one represents Palm Sunday. We sing a "Hosanna" song when we open this one. It's Claire's favorite.

2. Bread (oyster cracker). This represents the Last Supper. 

3. Silver (coins). This represents the money Judas was paid to betray his friend.

4. Purple cloth and thorns. This represents the robe and crown of thorns used to hurt and humiliate Jesus.

5. Whip (rope). This represents the beating Jesus received (really bad spankings that hurt Jesus very badly).

6. Cross. For this one, we talk about how Jesus was made to carry his cross up the hill but that he was hurt so badly and it was so heavy that another man had to help him. She's extremely interested in Simon.

7. Nails. This represents the nails used for Jesus' hands and feet.

8. King of the Jews sign. This represents the sign that Pilate hung on Jesus' cross.

9. Sponge and spear (kitchen sponge and toothpick). These represent the wine Jesus was given and the spear used to pierce His side. This is significant because they fulfill prophecies.

10. Spices. This represents the spices used on Jesus' body for His burial. 

11. Stone. This represents the stone used to seal Jesus' tomb.

12. Empty egg. This represents the empty tomb!

I know we're doing this for Claire, but it's quite good for me, too. It's a great, regular reminder of the elements involved in Jesus' death and resurrection, which is very appropriate for Lent. Does anyone else do these, and if so, do you use a different set up? I'm open to adapting this, if another/better setup is out there.

Lent with Claire: car conversations

One of the hopes and prayers I had for Claire during this Lenten season was that the things we're doing and talking about with her would "click" and sink in. Working through the Resurrection Eggs, memorizing Psalm 51, and doing a weekly craft or activity are all in place to help us talk with her about the gospel. I don't know if these things, particularly, are prompting her, but oh my goodness is she asking questions and thinking. 

We've been attending the Wednesday night Lenten services at church, and Claire has been requesting to go into "big church" with us. I know she's not understanding the full meaning of the devotions, but she's listening (while coloring and sticker-ing). She'll catch certain phrases that are said and ask about it. Last week, Allen was referring to the details of the fall and the curse, mentioning Adam and Eve. Claire asked (in a very loud whisper) if we were talking about Adam and Eve and the garden and the snake? She later heard him say the word "ash" and asked if we were talking about ashes/would we be getting more ashes on our heads. She's definitely listening.

On the ride home, she hit us with some direct, insightful questions. Questions like why can't I have the bread and juice when we go to the front of the church? Why did Jesus have to bleed? Did it hurt? Why did he die? Why do people die? When will we come back after we die? Why did they put Jesus in the cave with the rock in front? Could Jesus see in the dark while He was in the cave? Who moved the rock away from the cave?

Y'all. It takes us 8 minutes to get home from church.

Brad and I worked very hard to answer her as simply and yet as thoroughly as we could. It was a stretching experience to put such difficult concepts into language and imagery that a 4-year-old could understand. It was definitely a good thing for me to process my thoughts through that filter and to be stretched to think well. I'm sure we'll be talking about these things many times over the next few weeks as she continues to mulls things over.

She's making progress with her scripture passage, too, learning new vocabulary along the way (i.e. blot, iniquity, transgressions). We're learning each verse with hand motions so that we can help prompt her when she gets stuck. Maybe I'll try to video it soon. She's doing a great job...when she's not being silly. Bedtime brings out the silly in FULL FORCE.

The Resurrection Eggs are also going very well. She asks to talk about them at every meal (although we pretty much only do them at dinner), and she is remembering the meanings and connections so well. The problem is that she wants to play with the eggs in between meals. We've compromised by allowing her to (me) and being ok with (her) shaking them. Bless.

We're actually still working on last week's craft. It's not a difficult one, but it takes a little bit of time, and we've been interrupted quite a lot. Hopefully, it will get done this week, but if not, we'll just keep working on it. I am not forcing crafts; I do not have the energy for that, guys.

Are any of y'all doing any Lent-specific activities? Or, could any of you think of a better solution that Resurrection Egg-shaking? The thorns on our crown of thorns item have been falling off systematically...

Lent with Claire: Resurrection Eggs 2017, memory work, and first craft

We did a version of Resurrection Eggs with Claire last year and decided to do them again this year. I made some adjustments that I hope will make it even more effective for us this year. Like last year, rather than just doing the eggs for a couple weeks leading up to Easter, we're going to do them for the entirety of Lent, spending a few days on each egg so that the symbols and meanings will sink in for her. I'm hoping she doesn't get too bored with it. We'll see how it goes and adjust as we need to.

Our Resurrection Eggs. Claire calls them our "Hosanya" eggs. The first egg is a leaf, representing Palm Sunday. We sing a "Hosanna" song when we talk about it, and it's her favorite.

We've also chosen our passage to memorize with her: Psalm 51. It may be too ambitious, but we're going to give it a go. She has an amazing capacity for memory work, so we decided to aim high. First verse is already committed to memory!

Along with scripture memory, we're adding a new hymn to our bedtime routine: "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." We've been singing it with her for about a week now, so she'll probably start joining in in the next week or so, if she keeps to her usual song-learning pattern. Our choices of scripture and song were pretty carefully considered, so we hope that they work together in a significant way in her little heart.

And...I'm going to try weekly Easter crafts again this year. Claire loves crafts, and I like to reinforce learning opportunities. So we'll give it a go. If you follow me on Pinterest, you've probably seen me pinning away at Easter crafts and activities. My theory is that if I pin a LOT of things, I can narrow it down to a few really good ones. Or maybe I'll just end up cluttering my "Easter" board. Who's to say? I'm not sure this week's was so much a craft as an "activity." We made some Easter-related items out of play-doh and talked about them as we went along. Please note: sculpting is not our thing. 

Her working face.

Our cross

Our cross and lamb. Lamb-ish type creation, rather. Doesn't matter- we talked about Jesus being the Lamb of God. That's the important thing to focus on, guys.

Next week's craft is actually more craft-like, and I'm hoping to add another couple of verses. We'll see how it goes!

Ash Wednesday 2017: Lent with Claire, year 2

Today was Ash Wednesday, which officially begins our observance of Lent. I've written about Lent for a few years now, so anyone who has been reading for a while is familiar with the Boswell participation. I added the tag for last year's Lenten posts at the end of this one, if you want to go back and read through some of them. 

We've been planning out activities and practices to do with Claire again this year as we work through this preparation period. My plan is to write about it again each week, so hopefully, you can follow along in this year's journey. We're trying to be really thoughtful and strategic with our activity choices so that it will be age-appropriate and meaningful. Our first Lenten activity was to make a (loooong) paper chain that lasts until Easter. She responds really well to visual markers of time, so I think it will aid our daily discussions.

She attended her first Ash Wednesday service tonight, including receiving ashes. We had some really good conversations with her about Easter and Lent and the reason that we receive ashes. Those are big topics for a little girl, but she is very thoughtful and asks good (and really hard!) questions. It's definitely challenging me to think hard about my answers and creative ways to express them to Claire.

I hope we have wonderful things to share about Claire's participation in Lent this year; she's so terribly interested in spiritual matters right now, so I'm hoping this increases her knowledge and understanding. Today, we began with this...

Genesis 3:18

By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread,

til you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.