Easter, Holy Week, Preschoolers & Dogs-how do we tell them?

Easter, Holy Week, Preschoolers & Dogs-how do we tell them?

She asked, “Is she going to come alive again too?” Her four year old face looked up at me with those large wondering eyes as if I could provide the answer she was seeking. Her hopeful question struck me and I was staring at her dumb and fumbling for an answer.

We, standing together on the back deck, watched as daddy buried our faithful dog in our pet cemetery yards away. It was Holy Week and of course she had heard about Jesus’ death and resurrection. She wanted to know if the dog we loved so much was going to come back to us in the same way Jesus who loved us so much came back to us. And I stood there not knowing what to say.

How do we share the news of the death and resurrection of Jesus to our little ones?

My mistake was assuming that since she had been raised on a farm she was familiar with the natural cycle of life and death. What I didn’t realize was that when the family pet died it was different from the animals that provided food for the table. The family pet was part of us. The family dog had been the one who snuggled close to our little girl. Our precious dog Sasha had allowed our daughter to dump sand on her, to put hats on her and had allowed her to tumble and roll all over her. It became clear that we had lost a member of our family. Sasha’s death hurt deeply. And to a four year old she wanted to make sense out of this loss. Don’t we all?

I think we all want to make sense out the loss of our loved ones. And in our hope to understand we turn to the story of Jesus. We look to his death and resurrection in the hope that this will bring us comfort. We assure ourselves that our loved ones are resting in the arms of our resurrected Lord.

So, here we are in Holy Week and as adults we too struggle to understand the death of our Lord Jesus. How do we share the news of the death and resurrection of Jesus to our little ones?

Probably the best way is the way in which we share all kinds of information with our children, a little bit at a time. Or as the experts call it-in age appropriate chunks.

For tiny toddlers, they know about happy and sad. They can hear that it was a sad day when Jesus died. They can hear that some people are very mean and do hurtful things. They can hear that Jesus died on a cross (which we do not need to show any gory pictures at this age) because people didn’t understand about love.

Carolyn C. Brown has written an entire book for educators on how to teach children about Lent and Easter. Her work is excellent and it holds many details of different tangible activities that can be done to help children put a grasp on this idea of death and resurrection. One suggestion she has for tiny toddlers is to play with plastic Easter eggs by opening and closing them and being surprised at the empty egg. This surprise is a happy event. Connecting the empty egg with joy and saying, ‘Happy Easter, Jesus is alive!’ is one small way to begin the journey of the Easter story with the little ones.

I think back to my four year old and the sadness she felt. I think about the reality in her mind of the power of God to raise up Jesus. She understood the power of God to bring life. She grasped that concept. So, if God could do that for Jesus wouldn’t God also do that for Sasha, the dog? It was the strongest statement of faith! The trust in God’s strength and love and power proclaimed by a little one!

When a parent hears these words they need not be afraid. They need not think, ‘how cute.’ But, they need to acknowledge the faith that comes from the child in these moments. If a parent fails to witness these questions as declarations of faith then we do harm to the furthering of their faith in the future.

A response to a child who asks this question would be, “Yes, God’s love for us is so strong that God can raise up and bring new life to all of God’s creatures. Isn’t that a blessing? Our Sasha isn’t with us anymore but I trust that God loves all of the creatures God has made. I trust that she is truly in God’s care now and forever.”

The importance of telling preschoolers about the death of Jesus is to connect his death directly to God’s love and power to overcome death. In other words they need to hear that God wins. God has power that is greater than all the bad and all the meanness in the world. They can understand at this age that flowers die in the winter and come alive again in the spring. They love to hear the same story over and over again. Choose to tell them about joy of Easter and the wonder of God’s love. We are all on a journey of faith.

Don’t be surprised at the questions your little ones ask, because in them you will discover a mighty depth of faith. Praise God for this Holy Week and the power of God to give us strength to parent, to tell the story and to be surprised on Easter as we say, Christ is Alive! Alleluia, Amen!