Me: Why is he praying?
5 year old Ilaya: Because He knows he is going to die.
(She started getting teary eyed. I continued reading)
Ilaya: I don’t want to stay in this room. This room is sad.
(I hugged her)
Ilaya: I don’t understand. Why did God the Father have to leave His Son?
Me: Because He knew that His Son needed to die for us. He sacrificed His own Son to save us.
Ilaya:This room is sad.
(she left the room, trying to hide her tears)
(7 year old Alab, listening on the sideline, recalls Abraham going up the mountain with his son, Isaac.)





Alab: It’s just like how Abraham sacrificed Isaac. It’s showing how God the Father will sacrifice His own Son, Jesus.
Me: Yes. But remember that God provided a ram behind the bush.
Alab: Yeah! it’s saying that God will provide the Ultimate Lamb.
      The Ultimate Lamb is Jesus. 
      But how could (someone) dying save us?
————————————–
(We continued reading about Christ’s walk to Calvary. Ilaya still felt uneasy. She couldn’t take the idea that someone lets himself get hurt for her sake.)

…
We took a moment of silence, thanked Christ for dying on the cross and prayed that Christ come into her heart. 
…

(After we prayed…)
Ilaya: The bad things are still in my head.
(she sort of hits her head, wanting the bad thoughts to go away)
Me: What do you mean?
Ilaya: I can still see them spitting at him. Hurting Him. I can’t get it out. It’s in my head and it’s going to my heart.
(I did not explain any further. I just kept quiet and let the experience of The Word speak for itself.)

I closed the Word and told her that we will continue reading the next day. She was bothered. So, I reassured her that it does not end with Christ’s death. She smiled with a spark in her eye, and right at that moment, I understood what it means to long for Easter. 
It does not end with Christ’s death.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stoned rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 

Tomorrow we remember, and celebrate that Christ defeated death.