Lent with Claire 2016: Hosanyah!

Since my last update on observing Lent with Claire, we've added a few more symbols to our Resurrection Eggs repertoire. She's been dying to open all of the eggs and asks about it daily, but so far, we're still sticking to the plan of having her wait as we open them one at a time and spend a few days going over each one. But, we have added the second egg (an oyster cracker representing the Lord's Supper) and the third egg (a few quarters representing the silver that Judas was paid to betray Jesus). I was really excited on the night that we introduced the second egg (after spending about 3 days on the first) when Claire held the cracker in her hand and immediately asked, "What does it mean?" It let me know that she understood that each of the things inside the eggs represent something. I don't know how much she understands of our explanations, but she's connecting on at least some level, which is very encouraging. In fact, last night, I asked her what she remembered about the bread, and she said, "Jesus broke it and ate it!" Very true (well, with a few other details).

Oh! The "palm branch" craft that we made last week has been waved enthusiastically as we talk about the eggs every day. She has totally been into that. Note to self: Claire really likes crafts. We did another craft this week, although it didn't tie in directly with any of our new eggs, unlike the palm branch of last week. I chose to do a really basic, paper plate lamb. We talked about how Jesus is the Lamb of God, and she thoroughly enjoyed gluing cotton balls and googly eyes onto the plate. I had told her earlier in the day that we would make a lamb after her nap...only to have the afternoon thrown into a tizzy, thanks to a tornado blowing through (??). But, that's a story for another day. All you need to know for the purposes of this post is that we made our lamby craft while sitting right next to a window (after the storms had blown over) so that we could see; we lost power during the storm, but Claire was determined that we were going to make her lamb.

Sorry about the lighting...power outage.

I might have made life more difficult for myself early on in this Resurrection Egg process: when we first talked about the "palm branch" (leaf from the yard) and how the people said, "Hosanna!" (Claire says "hosanyah") as Jesus rode into town, on a whim, I sang a song that we've sung in our past two churches on Palm Sunday. She loved it and asks for it during our times talking about the eggs, as well as at nap time. But then, she kind of expected a song for egg #2 (bread). I drew a total blank and couldn't think of anything. Brad stepped up on that one, though, and started singing a song that our Boston church used to sing after communion each week, which has a verse about the bread. I'm not sure how long we can keep up the song element (especially for things like the wine-soaked sponge?)...if anyone has any ideas, please chime in!

We've also been consistent in reading through the Lent reading plan for the Jesus Storybook Bible. Claire has been much more involved in the process than she has been in the past, which is simultaneously great and a little wearying. It's wearying in the sense that her "involvement" involves a lot of talking over us while we're reading, pointing out things that she sees in the pictures, interpreting what she thinks is going on, and repeating parts of the story that stuck out to her. The night we read the story of Joseph ("Jofuss") and his brothers, she was FIXATED on the illustration of Pharaoh dreaming about the cows. She kept talking about how he was "so scary of those cows, Mommy, he's so scary of them!" And, when reading about Moses and the Plagues, she could not stop touching and commenting on the pictures of the "ants" and "bees" (flies and locusts). Stopping to acknowledge her comments yields absolutely no results, so pressing forward really is the best plan. Brad is good at this. I am not. Bless us all.

We have plans to introduce her to a new-to-her passage of scripture to memorize especially for Lent, but we're still finishing out the 23rd Psalm, so we'll see how that plan goes. We're having some trouble with "surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." No idea why.

So far, I am so pleased with how our Lent plans are playing out. She really seems to be connecting with what we're doing, as well as enjoying it. I'm hoping that we're able to encourage her involvement and enthusiasm over the next few weeks!