Gassid Boys: Good Friday!

What a sad yet amazing day Friday was. I cannot even begin to imagine the sadness that Christ's follower's experienced that day as they watched their Messiah die on the cross. What an amazing sacrifice He gave for us! Praise you Jesus! Thank you Jesus for being our sacrifice on the cross so that we can have direct access to God!!!

Today we took the boys to a thing called, "Good Friday Experience." As you enter into the church their is a huge curtain that separates the lobby from going inside to the auditorium. The first station you go to is a table full of bowls and water jars. At this station you cleanse not only your hands but your heart before entering the church. At each station we explained this to the boys and allowed them to participate however they would like. They both really enjoyed washing their hands.

The next station was a table full of old silver coins. We got to touch and hold the coins! These coins represented the 30 coins Judas got when he turned in Jesus. Jaxson had to count them to make sure there were 30 coins. Then we went on to a table that had the last supper on it. Here you could take the Lord's supper.

The next station was the garden. We let Jaxson tell the story of the garden and he explained it in full detail! He knew this is where Jesus prayed, that the 3 followers fell asleep, then Judas came to kiss Jesus on his cheek. After that Peter sliced the ear off of one of the guards, and then Jesus told Peter, "Put away your sword!" and then put the ear back on the guard. It brought tears to my eyes to hear Jaxson tell us the whole story!

The next station was two big pieces of wood symbolizing the cross Jesus had to carry. We let the boys touch the wood. Jaxson felt it and said, "Oh, I hope Jesus didn't get any splinters when He had to carry it." I told him that Jesus probably got lots of splinters, but He did it for us! And He would do it again.

The next station was the crown of thorns and nails. Here jaxson was touching the thorns and one of the thorns scraped his arm. Jaxson said, "Ouch, I probably know what it must of felt like for Jesus!

The next was the Curtain of the temple that ripped from top to bottom. This is an AWESOME part of the story! This is when Jesus dying on the cross gave us COMPLETE and DIRECT access to God!! We no longer have to go to high Priests, or sacrifice lambs in order to meet with God! Jesus was our perfect LAMB!

The next was a table full of linen cloths, oils, and incense. It was neat to smell the smells that they covered Him in. The next and final station was the cross! Here we read the story of the cross, and then you would take a piece of paper and write down something that you need the Lords help in, or something that you are ready to hand over to the Lord. We asked Jax if there was something he would like God to help him with and he said, "To be a better brother." We wrote down our things and nailed them to the cross!

After that we knelt by the cross and prayed! Jaxson's prayer went like this, "Dear God, thank you for all of these things. Help me to be a better brother." Jantzen prayed a short little prayer and then stood up, rubbed his tummy and said, "I can feel God in my heart!"

I think my eyes were filled with tears the whole time! There is just nothing like watching your small children start to grasp and understand God's love for them! We pray constantly that God would grant the wisdom and help them to understand the things that are hard for us to understand!! I love to see Him working and moving in their lives!