...of marshmallows and boys...

It was a really cool game. The kids tossed the ball to another child in the circle and repeated “Jesus died for________” and filled in their name. What a way to personalize the story of what God had done during this Easter season. When the game was done we regrouped and I began to ask questions about how the children felt hearing that Jesus had died for them. One boy stated that he felt really sad. “Yes,” I explained “that is a sad thing that Jesus had to die.” We continued with the lesson and as I spoke about Jesus rising from the dead Kevin yells out “HE DID?!” Reality checked itself at the door of my heart. After all these years I take for granted so many times that the children have heard the basics of Christianity in North America. But Kevin had never heard.I re-told the whole story just for that little boy and as I spoke I heard it again through the fresh understanding of an eight year old. To him, it didn’t matter that everyone else had done wrong things. Jesus had died for his sins, on the cross and that was sad.We had a great snack planned and as the talk wrapped up we headed in to the kitchen to don our chef hats. The children wrapped a marshmallow with a crescent roll, sprinkled them with cinnamon and placed them on the baking sheet. I explained that we were going to use our imaginations and think of the marshmallow as Jesus being wrapped and placed in the tomb after he died. We would close the oven door just like the soldiers closed the tomb.Then we left.I have to tell you that it had been a really busy week and I hadn’t had a chance to try this snack out before so I had as much idea what would happen to our baked goods as the children did. Ever the professional, I went on to the next activity without a second thought. At the end of the night one of the leaders brought out the tomb confections and put them on the table for the kids to devour. Kevin took a bite and ran to me excitedly “Look Cheryl, He has risen!” The marshmallow had indeed melted and left an empty hole in the crescent roll, but in the eyes of that eight year old boy the stone had been rolled away and Jesus was no longer there.You see Jesus had not only died for Kevin but had risen and made a way for him to be forgiven…and that message was anything but sad!