More Easter Week Activities

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs) - click on over!

Where last night we shared a story that did a good job of translating The Atonement into something we can understand with our feeble 2010 minds, tonight we went hardcore with the real thing.

Reasoning that the kids are all old enough now, we rented 2004's The Passion Of The Christ and watched it tonight. Cindy and I had seen it in the theater when it first came out, but not since then. It was amazing how clearly we both still remembered it now... It's powerful like that.

It was really good after the movie to ask the kids what they got out of it.

Ellysa was touched by the human-ness of our Savior, which was illustrated through the relationship he had with his mother, Mary. One scene in particular - the same scene that had a huge impact on Cindy six years ago was the one that got her. Jesus was carrying his cross up the hill, when he makes eye contact with Mary, standing off to the side. She flashes back to a time when he was younger, and was running and fell, and she dropped everything to go comfort him. When it flashes back to the current events, he falls under the weight of the cross, but she is unable to help him. It's heart wrenching.

Andy said that watching the whole last half of the movie was the most painful experience he's ever had in his life. It's true - it is NOT an "enjoyable" movie. It's ludicrous to think that taking on the sins of the world - past, present and future - would be enjoyable... But even still, those feeble 2010 minds I mentioned have a really hard time wrapping themselves around something bigger and deeper than "ooh, I need to check facebook!"

Kaylee was just sobbing quietly when it ended. She, out of all of our kids, is the empathetic one. The one who is so in tune with, and concerned for everyone else's feelings, that she will often sacrifice her own. Even though our whole family participated in the Jesus of Nazareth outdoor Passion Play in Puyallup for several years, Kaylee was too young to remember much about it. Plus, she was usually facing the audience, not watching the action, so she was very taken aback by how horrifying the treatment of this sinless man was.

Cindy and I both zoomed in on a line we hadn't remembered from our previous viewing. It was during a flashback to Jesus' teaching days, when he was preaching the importance of loving one another. And not just the people who love you back, but your enemies as well. "If you only love those who love you, what reward is there in that?" Brought home to me that only showing love to those you love, like, and are comfortable with, is like doing a child's 8-piece jigsaw puzzle over and over, well into adulthood. It's shallow, and there is no chance for the satisfaction of knowing you've grown. There's our principle to work on...

Now it's way past bedtime, and the kids are tucked in for the night. Time for the parents to do the same.

Tomorrow night's activities have been promised to be of a lighter hue!