I am so very fortunate to work in a Christian School where we can proclaim the Good News of Jesus and have meaningful encounters with the living God within the boundaries of a school setting.  Most recently, we celebrated the true meaning of Easter in a solemn chapel that students from junior kindergarten to grade six attended.  Our students love going to chapels each week during the school year, but admittedly when 300 children get together in a gymnasium there are times when they are, shall we say, a little more spirited, squirmy, talkative, etc., etc., etc.  As a teacher, my job is to temper their spirited natures somehow so they will sit quietly and behave appropriately during that time.  It is not always an easy thing.  However, at this Easter Chapel, although I did prep my grade sixes a little beforehand about sitting still etc., I knew the moment I walked into that gym, that there was a peacefulness amongst the children I had not seen before.

Soft lighting and soft music permeated the room, giving off an atmosphere of peace as well.

A wooden cross was at the front of the auditorium with baskets at the foot of it.  Each student had been asked to write their “burdens”, prayers and anything they wanted to share or confess to the Lord on little pieces of paper.  Then at the end of chapel, they were to place their slips of paper in the baskets.

One of my colleagues read the biblical account of the Passion Week, the crucifixion and resurrection, and every student sat silently and respectfully listening.  Then another teacher read a story I had not heard before and I, along with everyone else in the room, was mesmerized by the immediate personal application this story had with the biblical account just read.  It was a story written by Joshua Harris, author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye.   Harris said he wrote it as the result of a dream he had while in Puerto Rico for the 1995 Billy Graham Crusade.

I looked around that auditorium full of youngsters and knew that each of them had just “experienced Easter”.

We have a tradition of participating in Good Friday and Easter Sunday services and we also gather as a family to watch several of the “classic” movies that are shown during the Easter season: Ben Hur, The Robe, The Passion of the Christ to name a few.  I will be adding this video to my Easter watching as well.  I hope you will too.