Jesus Birthday Party

There is a scene in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe that has been running through my mind today. Aslan goes off one night to make a deal with the Witch. Edmund was required to pay a price for disobeying the laws of the land, and Aslan decided to pay the price himself. The part where Aslan slowly and knowingly takes each slow step as he walks towards the altar where the Witch is standing with her knife, ready to kill him. All of the Witch's little helpers are poking and laughing at him as they dance in circles around him. And yet he keeps going, knowing the outcome. Do you ever feel like you are walking slowly, purposefully in a direction, knowing that the Enemy's helpers are just laughing at you? But you must continue on, if for nothing else but to understand about sanctification. To understand the sacrifice, when we are the Edmund's that disobey and act like children. So much to tell since I last blogged, and not knowing where to start. I will get to some of these things later, but for now I will resume my journey of finishing the posts before Christmas. You know, before Valentine's Day comes and all.

Last year my Sunday School class had a birthday party for Jesus, but we had a conflict and couldn't make it. So I was thrilled that we could go.

The morning of the party, I was talking to Justin about what we were going to do. What friends we would see, where the party was, and how we got to sing happy birthday to Jesus! Justin stops dead in his tracks, gives me this, "Are you insane?" look, and says to me:

"Jesus won't be there, mommy. He's dead."

Rut-row. I just kind of hung my mouth open, completely caught off guard by the obvious. I start explaining about how we are celebrating the Spirit of Jesus, how He lives in our hearts, you name it. He would just keep saying, "He won't be there because he is dead."

So thank goodness Mariana had some great activities planned to get our minds off the fact that the birthday boy technically wouldn't be there for the celebration.

She made cupcakes for everyone to eat.


She dressed as an angel and read The Jesus Storybook Bible to the kids. This is such a precious Bible that Justin got for his birthday. Every story leads back to how Jesus is the central theme of every story in the Bible.


You can tell this is an ex-teacher - she knew how to capture these kids' attentions.


Mariana prayed with all the kids after the Bible lesson. So sweet, until I notice Justin looking around the room during the prayer. One moment of eye contact with his mother and he quickly bowed his head as well.


Then we did some crafts. They did a dot-to-dot craft as well as made their own manger scene.


This was actually tricky (for me, you know I'm remedial). They colored the manger scene, cut a line in the paper and folded paper, then glued the hay in the middle.


So proud of himself, fakey fake smile and all.


Then it was time to dim the lights, light our candles, and sing happy birthday to Jesus! Thankfully the broken record didn't share the secret that Jesus really wasn't there. Did I really want to get into a logistical argument with 3 and 4 year olds about how He lives in our hearts?


After filling our bellies with cupcakes and snacks, we sang some Christmas carols. That was mighty funny watching us moms all stop on the same verses that somewhat stumped us. I love the animated faces in this photo.


And heartiness of the boys as they sang.


Thanks Mariana for such a fun activity. I know you worked hard for this!