Dear Grandchildren,
Today is Good Friday. It's part of the Easter week-end, the last part of Holy Week which began last Sunday with Palm Sunday. Today is a good day for us but it must have been a very, very sad day for Jesus. It's the day that we remember that Jesus died on the cross so that we can have our sins forgiven, washed away. You know how good it feels to get the muckies washed off your hands after eating sticky food or playing in the mud? Well muckies also come inside of us and Jesus is the only one who can wash these kind of muckies away when we ask Him to do that. Then we feel... aaaah so clean and light and free - because we're forgiven. That's the good news, the very best news, about this day. (And we know that Easter Sunday is coming, which is another very, very good day and is the happy ending to this sad day - but we'll get there a bit later.)
Five years ago Grandpa and I went to the Holy Land to see some of the places where Jesus had been - where He was born, and where He lived with His parents and His brothers and sisters, where He did His first miracle and then many more, where He walked on the water - imagine walking on water....wouldn't that be awesome? We also visited the places where He prayed with His disciples and where the soldiers were mean to Him, where He was crucified and where He was laid after He died. Now no one knows for sure the exact spots where this might have been but we know about where it would have been and so these places help us to remember and to think about how wonderful this Easter week-end really is.
Here are a few pictures of our visit to Jerusalem, sometimes called The Holy City:
Grandpa at the Garden of Gethsemane-this is where Jesus prayed the night the soldiers came and took Him away. Our guide told us that some of the olive trees in this garden were so old they probably were right there when Jesus was there.
These old stone steps are probably the very steps that Jesus had to walk up when the soldiers took him to the High Priest's palace.
Do you remember what happened when Peter went to see what was happening to his friend, Jesus? He got really scared and told people that he didn't know Jesus at all. He did this three times and then a rooster crowed - just as Jesus had told him it would happen. You can see the rooster in this picture of Jesus looking at Peter. Peter was very, very sad when he saw how the people were treating Jesus and how he had just treated Jesus. He was oh so sorry about that. (There is a very happy ending to this part of the story which I'll try to remember to tell you about another time-remind me if I forget, okay?)
After Jesus was treated shamefully by the people in the High Priest's palace he went to the other end of the city where Pilate, who was kind of the boss of the government in that country, lived. That's where Pilate gave the orders to have him killed.
Jesus had to carry His own cross to a place just outside the city, called Golgatha, where He was crucified. Jesus never did one bad thing in His life. He died on the cross so we could live, the only way we could live.
This is a very sad story but it is also a very good story, a very important story. It is Good News for all the people in the world.
When I was a little girl this story made me very sad. I can remember my teacher reading it to us from the Bible when I was in Grade 3 - and I cried. I was embarrassed that I cried but no one made fun of me. Everyone made fun of Jesus, though...I wonder how He must have felt.
But Easter is full of hope and cheer and promises of new life. That is one of the reasons Easter eggs became popular. Every egg has the promise of life safely cocooned inside.
I boiled a lot of eggs today to get ready for Easter. G&I each had one for lunch while they were still hot and not coloured. Can you count how many eggs are in the bowl? Do you know how many I cooked altogether? Which egg would you choose? Which is your favourite colour? When you come over to our place you can choose the one you like best!
Jesus had to carry His own cross to a place just outside the city, called Golgatha, where He was crucified. Jesus never did one bad thing in His life. He died on the cross so we could live, the only way we could live.
This is a very sad story but it is also a very good story, a very important story. It is Good News for all the people in the world.
When I was a little girl this story made me very sad. I can remember my teacher reading it to us from the Bible when I was in Grade 3 - and I cried. I was embarrassed that I cried but no one made fun of me. Everyone made fun of Jesus, though...I wonder how He must have felt.
But Easter is full of hope and cheer and promises of new life. That is one of the reasons Easter eggs became popular. Every egg has the promise of life safely cocooned inside.
I boiled a lot of eggs today to get ready for Easter. G&I each had one for lunch while they were still hot and not coloured. Can you count how many eggs are in the bowl? Do you know how many I cooked altogether? Which egg would you choose? Which is your favourite colour? When you come over to our place you can choose the one you like best!
We love you,
Grandpa and Grandma
