In our midst

Holy week began with me thinking about how we listen to the children in our midst. It has continued with opportunities to be with young people as they explore this week in a variety of ways.

On Monday at the SU group at St John's primary the children were fascinated by the Easter Garden that one of the leaders had lovingly created. They asked many questions as the bible story of Easter day was read and the garden explored! What's behind the stone? Why has Jesus turned into a gardener? Did Jesus move the stone himself? Can I make one of these? I've never heard of Palm Sunday tell me that story!

On Tuesday the P7s of Chatelherault Primary visited the Easter Code at Cadzow Parish Church. There was a peaceful, happy and reflective atmosphere as they experienced the sharing of the passover meal, the serving of feet washing, the struggling of Gethsamene, the seeking of the crowds, and the sacrifice of Good Friday.

Wednesday lunchtime, as always, is time for Cafe Haven at Larkhall Academy. This week a wooden cross stood in the corner as the young people drank their hot chocolate, chatted, laughed, and played connect 4, Jenga, and card games. A number of them took up the invitation to take a black armband from the cross to wear in remembrance of the death of Jesus. Some tied it to their wrists, some used it as a scrunchy, others tied it to their bags. The presence of the cross reminded me of these words by George Mcleod...

“I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the centre of the marketplace as well as at the steeple of the church.

I recover the claim that Jesus was not crucified on a table between two candles but on a cross between two thieves, on a town garbage heap, at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek, and at the kind of place

where cynics talk smut

and thieves cursed

and soldiers gambled

because that is where he died, and is what he died about, and that is what Christ’s follower ought to be about.” George McLeod.

May you know his presence this Holy Week.

Jen