I have recently been reviewing old blog posts, and I came across a reflection I wrote following Ash Wednesday when I worked as a preschool teacher at a Lutheran preschool. I did my internship at that preschool, where my focus was intentionally creating and reflecting on the connections between faith and early childhood development. An edited version of that reflection is below.
Ash Wednesday 2010–I was a preschool teacher, our class was going to be in charge of Bible Time on Ash Wednesday. I knew I wanted to work out an imposition of ashes. I arranged for the pastor of the congregation to join us for Bible Time, which was not usual for him.
The weekend before Ash Wednesday, the congregation’s custodian, Mr. Ken died suddenly and unexpectedly (I wrote a blog about that HERE), so I wanted to make sure we named that and included our grieving in our Bible Time. I asked the teachers to encourage the kids to draw pictures and make cards for Mr. Ken that we’d bring together as an offering and then give to his wife.
The story for the day was actually the Transfiguration story, which was the Gospel for the previous Sunday. So the challenge was to tell the story of Transfiguration, do a brief memorial for Mr. Ken and then explain Ash Wednesday…all before the little 3 yr. olds got fidgety or started falling asleep for nap. Actually, the memorial for Mr. Ken gave a nice bridge between the LIGHT of Transfiguration and Epiphany to the DARK of Ash Wednesday and Lent.
We usually held Bible Time in the fellowship hall, and after the morning Bible study Mr. Ken would put away the adult tables and set up the chairs for the preschool. 10 minutes before Bible Time, I went in to set up the cross and candles…and the chairs weren’t set up. Of course. No one had thought about it. I improvised and set up our space in the back of the hall, where we could sit in a circle around a cross and set up some candles in the middle.
Overall, Bible Time went really well. The pastor attended and participated. I regularly used Kenyan kangas for costumes during Bible Time, and usually the kids would be the ones to wear them. That week, I decided to switch it up and use the teachers in the skit, which the kids really enjoyed. We had read the story in our class earlier in the week, so when we got to the part where a voice comes from Heaven, the teacher playing God didn’t know what the voice said, but the kids in my class helped him out. We said a brief Epiphany Litany as our prayer, where they responded to a petition with “Jesus is the light.” Then we plugged in Christmas lights, turned off house lights, and sang the Taize prayer “Jesus, remember me when I come into your kingdom” as the kids brought their cards and pictures up and placed them on the floor around the cross and candles. Then the pastor talked about how the cross reminds us what God did for us through Jesus. We sang “Jesus loves me” as he went around the group and offered ashes to those who wanted them. Not too much fidgeting and no one fell asleep! Later in the day, I heard a kid humming “Jesus remember me when I come into your kingdom” as he played with dinosaurs.
We also had what we called a “Jesus shelf” in the classroom, which was a small book shelf that with Bible stories and other manipulatives. I tried to use the shelf to reinforce the seasons and stories we talked about, so had recently switched out the nativity set for a bowl of rocks and battery-operated tea lights. I had also left my kangas there for the kids to dress up in. After Bible Time on Ash Wednesday the kids all wanted to play in the Jesus corner. One girl wanted to be the pastor, so we found a small bowl and she went around pretending to mark crosses on people’s foreheads and said, “Jesus loves you.”
Kids get it…that’s what I learned that year (and have learned again and again since then). When we take time to include them in our faith practices, they get it. When we give them the tools to hear the Story and act it out, they get it. There’s so much in liturgical worship that they can respond to and interact with. They get it.
During Advent we read a devotional in our class, where each day there was a brief reading followed by an Advent Activity. By the time Advent was over, the kids were the ones reminding me to read each day. During Lent, we were going through a Lenten devotional called “What Color is Lent,” where each page was a seek-and-find puzzle with a brief reading about Lent. Again, they were really getting into it. One Friday the color was white and the object they were supposed to find was the cloud, out of which the voice of God said at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my son, whom I love.” I told them that when they see a cloud outside they can remember that God says to them, “[Name], you are my son, whom I love.” And sure enough, we had to go through the whole class and say that for everybody. (“what about me?”) Then, when we had said it 10 times for the kids there, we had to keep saying it for the kids that weren’t. Then someone remembered that we’re getting new friends soon, so we had to say it to them too. Then someone else said the teachers, so we had to say it for the teachers. And Mr. Ken’s wife.
Ash Wednesday took on a deeper meaning for me that year.