What a journey we have had through 40 days of Lent leading up to the joyous celebration of Easter. The next Christian celebration after Easter is Ascension Day, which marks the 40th day after Easter and commemorates Jesus’s ascension into heaven. This Sunday we will celebrate the 40th year of PTCUMC Weekday School. Needless to say, forty has been on my mind a lot lately! As we have been planning the 40th anniversary celebration, I have been thinking a lot about the significance of the number 40 in the Christian faith. In additional to Lent and the Ascension, this number often represents special Bible stories like the 40 days of rain during Noah’s flood (one of the kids’ favorites) and the 40 years the Israelites spent in the wilderness. These are stories of trust and reliance on God. This is one of the most important lessons that we teach in Weekday School. Yes, the children are learning their shapes, colors, numbers, lots of words and eventually even how to read, but most importantly they are learning that God is with them and that Jesus loves them always. They are taught about this unconditional love by their teachers every day. We spend lots of time reinforcing the lesson to treat others as you would like to be treated and to be thankful for all that God gives us. You can see this demonstrated in our halls as children learn to share, take turns, comfort their friends, and sing their prayers before snack and lunch.
Right now, we have caterpillars in many of our classrooms. The children are so excited to check on them each day and watch them eat and grow. Later this week, I expect that many of them will climb to the top and spin into their chrysalis. Then we wait. It is hard to have patience and faith that something is happening even though we can’t always see it, but eventually the beautiful butterflies emerge, and the excitement begins all over again. There are often mixed emotions when we release them into God’s big world, as the children are all so proud and amazed by these little miracles. But it’s also a little sad that they have to say goodbye and let them fly away. I think the teachers feel this way about their students at the end of our school year. All year they nurture them, watch them grow and change, and then give them wings to fly away to do great things in the big world outside our building. Our Weekday School ministry has been serving our community and church for 40 years by teaching children about God and his Son. We are so grateful for all the families that have trusted us with their children and allowed us to be part of their early education. I am so excited to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Weekday School with you this Sunday in both services. I hope to see all of you there as we honor the people who have made this ministry a success and celebrate the thousands of children and families who have been part of our program.
