Lent with Kids

Because the kids loved doing it we are going to repeat our family practice around Lent like we did last year.

One of the things that the kids have asked us a lot is, "why did they kill Jesus." and "why did Jesus die."  

It is easy to say, "He died for our sins." Whatever truth that statement contains also ignores the truth of Jesus' historical realities.  Jesus's actions were profound and subversive.  Jesus's living is why he was killed.  The actions of God in the world are discomforting to power structures and to religious authorities.

Because this is an important part of what we want to share with our kids about the life of Jesus we are doing that in our lenten practice.

We are using our children's bible and another one we got from the bible.  For each day of lent there is a slip of paper in a cup on our table.  The kiddos get to pick out a slip of paper and choose which bible story we are going to read at dinner.  (slips of paper have name of bible, page, and story title)

After we read the story we take our slip of paper and tape it to a piece of black poster board.  Over time we will assemble the slips of paper into the shape of the cross.   At that time we will talk to the kiddos about how Jesus' actions are what lead him to the cross.