You are reading an entry from 14th February 2013 in Church Matters, a blog by our general editor, Paul Beasley-Murray. If you wish to leave a comment, please visit paulbeasleymurray.com.
This year I thought I would do something in Lent for my seven grandchildren. I began with the intention of sending 40 post-cards depicting the life of Jesus. What I had in mind was a ‘countdown’ to Easter. A year or so back, when we were going on holiday together, I did a countdown to the holiday – it was part of building excitement; and I thought I could do something similar building up the excitement to Easter. I guess the nearest parallel would be an Advent calendar, which builds up to Christmas. So I surfed the net for pictures, but after two hours I could find nothing – I could find pictures of the baby Jesus, I could find pictures depicting the stations of the Cross, but nothing which remotely gave an overview of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I would have been happy with 40 different pictures of Jesus, indeed with anything to do with Jesus, but I found nothing.
The nearest I got to finding such pictures were two sets of cards from the Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art – 16 pictures in all. But sadly they are quite beyond my grandchildren – indeed, if the truth be told, they are probably beyond the ordinary punter. I also came across a number of depictions of the Stations of the Cross – but they did not seem right for children.
In desperation I spoke to a highly creative friend – and she has made the equivalent of a ‘Holy Week’ calendar – save it starts before Holy Week. In all there are ‘doors’ for every letter of the alphabet – with a picture each day to colour. The calendars I am posting to the three families concerned – one in Vancouver, and two in London. Then every day of the four weeks I shall e-mail a larger copy of the picture on the calendar, together with one or more Bible verses to read, a brief comment and a simple prayer to say. I confess that we have drawn upon an old children’s storybook – but the calendar is very much our idea. The letters work out as follows:-
Twenty eight letters in total, because the letter S appears three times – but that is helpful for me because it extends the period (ideally I had hoped for something to cover forty days!). Yes, I confess that some of the equivalences might appear a little contrived – and yet, amazingly, this ABC of the story of Christ’s passion and sub sequent triumph is chronological in order. In this simple way I will seek to share my faith with my grandchildren – and hopefully generate excitement in the build-up to Easter!
You are reading an entry from 14th February 2013 in Church Matters, a blog by our general editor, Paul Beasley-Murray.
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