Of Easter festivities - children, chocolate and pageantry, with insight from C.S.Lewis and an observation

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 19:14
But Jesus intervened: "Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these."

STORY from C. S. Lewis:
There is a stage in a child's life at which it cannot separate the religious from the merely festal character of Christmas or Easter. I have been told of a very small and very devout boy who was heard murmuring to himself on Easter morning a poem of his own composition which began 'Chocolate eggs and Jesus risen.' This seems to me, for his age, both admirable poetry and admirable piety. But of course the time will soon come when such a child can no longer effortlessly and spontaneously enjoy that unity. He will become able to distinguish the spiritual from the ritual and festal aspect of Easter; chocolate eggs will no longer seem sacramental. And once he has distinguished he must put one or the other first. If he puts the spiritual first he can still taste something of Easter in the chocolate eggs; if he puts the eggs first they will soon be no more than any other sweetmeat. They will have taken on an independent, and therefore a soon withering, life.

OBSERVATION:
There is something special about Easter. There is something special about Children. When the two are combined … watch out because anything can happen. Metaphors get mixed up. Priorities are turned upside down. The “awe” factor takes over. But, somewhere in the mix, Easter still gets celebrated even with a little face smeared with the remnants of a chocolate egg hastily eaten before mommy could take it away.

Palm Sunday has arrived. We are preparing to hear the little children sing their hosannas and wave their palm branches. Many times I wish I could get inside of their little minds to discover what they are really thinking as they parade down the aisle of the church. Do they understand? Do they comprehend? Do they know what is really happening?

And then it dawns on me … Do any of us really understand, comprehend, or know what is happening?

Oh, we can retell the story. We know the facts. We can share the list of characters. But understand? Comprehend? Know?

It is a God event and at many levels, more than we will ever fully appreciate, it belongs to the children … and to the child in all of us. We should simply let the awe factor embrace us. Wonder with the best of them. Eyes wide open. Heads turning. Taking it all in. Marching down an aisle. Waving a palm branch. Shouting Hosanna.

God is in charge. It is his event ... and we, a participant. The wonder of it all over takes us. Are we looking for some chocolate in the shape of Palm Branches? Would that help?

PRAYER:
Help us, O God, not to get so caught up in the trappings of the pageantry that the child in us gets lost. We really do want more than just chocolate Easter eggs this year.