Giving the Greatest Gift at Our Christian School

A favourite Christmas stories to read to my children is The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. Joshua, a lamb who didn’t fit in and was broken, believed he had nothing of value to offer the newly arrived King. I won’t share his gift so you can enjoy the story for yourself if you haven’t already, but the gift was one that the lamb hadn’t even considered to be valuable.  

Perhaps the truest delight of Christmas gift-giving (not gift-getting) is recognizing the ability to give something that matches who you are and what you believe is important, and then giving that gift to someone else in way that is a rich blessing to them in ways they didn’t expect.

Prayer It is with great joy that I hear of people who tell me they include the staff and students of LCES in their regular prayer time. We thank you for remembering us in this way.

Money We’ve been blessed with financial means to take care of some pressing needs in our school that our operating budget wasn’t expecting. Thanks for choosing to bless us and our mission.

Time It is one of the greatest gifts we are given by volunteers who offer the work of their helping hands in support of who we are and we what we stand for.

Let’s rejoice together!  We’re also thankful for students sharing their gifts and talents. This Wednesday our students will share the story in word and song of the very best gift ever given.

May God bless our students, families, and staff with a joyous and safe Christmas break after this exciting week. God has great things in store for LCES in 2020!

SJ

Waiting at Advent at Our Christian School

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

We make a quick transition to Christmas in modern culture. Once Remembrance Day is through, we hastily take out the special food, music, and Christmas finery. By January the 1^st, most of it is gone and boxes are brought back down to the store room and the Christmas tunes are packed away for another year.

Our family has been reading about the end of the nations of Israel and Judah just before the 400 years that are called the dark or silent years. It’s an intensely sad read as generations of unfaithfulness of God’s people led to being conquered, and nearly snuffed out by neighbouring nations. By the rivers of Babylon a tiny remnant wept over the demise of the temple and the waywardness of God’s people. And they waited. And God was silent.

This is the leadup to John the Baptist, Mary’s angel visit, and then the shepherd’s nighttime angel chorus visit. God with us! What a joy that we can point our students at LCES to the wider, amazing story of God loving us so much that he came to Bethlehem, and has promised that he will came come again. I’m thankful for Christian education which can remind our students in very real ways that they are part of that story and will share in its joyful ending. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

SJ

Deliveries and Imagination at Our Christian School

Deliveries come to the school nearly every day. Today I had the joy of bringing a special delivery of a large envelope addressed to the SK class. Spot the dog had “written” to the class and he had sent an enthusiastic letter encouraging students to write back. He promised to write the students back if they wrote to him. Some students happily and willingly went along with the teacher’s imaginative ploy to get them to practice writing even though they seemed to understand it wasn’t real, while others seemed to be quite convinced this was all very true.

Upon returning to my desk, I thought this through. Loads of fun to be sure. Was it deception, or fun with imagination?  I’m pretty sure it is the second option, but it made me wonder where the line is between imaginative play and leading students away from the truth. I remember reading a short story with a grade eight class years ago about an imaginary trip to the moon. Poverty gave no space for a family holiday, so the father gave the gift of a what the very young children believed to be an actual real trip complete with home made shuttle, space suits, moon rocks, and a rolling screen outside the “window.” A wise student summarized the story with a question: “What is better, the truth which brings a tear, or a lie that brings a smile?”

As a parent, I know it isn’t that simple. We want our children to know and love God’s truth. Does that crowd out imagination and willing suspension of disbelief? Matthew 18 warns about causing children to go astray by willful choice, however imagination is clearly a gift that God gives us all – especially in the precious years of childhood.

I'm thankful for wise LCES teachers who embrace truth and imagination at once. 

SJ

Walking Straight at Our Christian School

Last weekend I listened to a humorous podcast about a series of experiments conducted in 1920’s and 1930’s on the ability of humans to walk straight without the benefit of sight. While blindfolded, and in several different locations, repeated attempts were made to have someone move straight from fixed point to fixed point without curving off to the side. Most test subjects were able to start off very accurately but, without a visual reference point, would veer off and eventually find themselves close to where they started. Results were much better when there was someone else speaking to them to give them an auditory reference point to gauge their progress. 

What a great illustration for living together and having a place to belong as a part of learning. We need each other! Without the gift of others, we can easily veer off and find ourselves off track, or even worse, not make any progress. God’s gift of community is a blessing to us when we feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit though the words of others and feel comforted or inspired by their actions. We come to realize that we need one another more than we might have known, and are surprised by joy and the coming kingdom when we feel God working in us through others.   

May our children learn to walk well as they listen to voices around them at LCES. 

SJ

Speaking Up at Our Christian School

Twenty-three times per year our student body gathers together in the gym for chapel. Today, the students were the leaders up front.

The unique chapel was led by our LIT (Leaders in Training) team and marked the start of Bullying Awareness Week. Our fourteen member team prepared for chapel by creating a video with scenarios to illustrate what bullying looks like, how not to deal with it, and how one should deal with it. We were directed to the instruction in Proverbs 31 to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” and to “speak up for justice”.

Our school theme (Psalm 24:1) also declares that all people belong to God. Wanting our school playground to also be a place where all students feel like they belong, our LIT team have organized a buddy bench outside on the playground for the week. The LIT team will ensure that if any student needs help or wants a friend, they can have a seat and one of the LIT team members will support them. Later this week, they will be working on an all -school art project that will be placed in the front garden next spring. It will visually point out that each and every student belongs at our school.

It is very exciting to see our students taking charge of important matters here at our school! I’m thankful for the space for our students to practice leadership here, to equip them to be leaders everywhere.

 SJ

The Pain in Remembering and Hope of Advent

It was wet and cold this morning as grade seven and eight stood outside for an hour. Grade seven marked Remembrance Day at the downtown cenotaph, while grade eight stood outside at the Royal Canadian Regiment Museum. The wintry mix of sleet was a fitting backdrop for the Remembrance Day proceedings. Gratitude for service and the high cost of freedom were certainly foremost in our minds as wore our poppies and bowed our heads. The tears, barren tree branches, and a brisk wind remind us of the raw reality of what we are also recalling; wars and fighting remain, guns have not been silenced, hatred still motivates harm, and people. We lament that conflict abounds nearby and far away from our home and native land.

The grade two/three class led the service in in our school gym. Spoken words, songs, and visuals during the student-led chapel affirmed that we need to “let the peace of Christ rule in [our] hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” Colossians 3:15

That peace seems very elusive. Human suffering continues in the hands of tyrants, and so many wait for the kind of justice and peace that Christ commanded. Is there hope?

 Yes! That peace of Christ comes to us as we pattern our lives after his gospel. I’m so thankful that the “message of Christ” is part of life here at LCES in the devotional and learning parts of every day. The coming kingdom of God with justice and peace for all is what we work for every day in each lesson and conversation, each challenge and success. May our students grow in wisdom that propagates peace and returns our world back to way God originally created it – beautiful, perfect, and filled with peace.

The hope of advent is just around the corner.

SJ

Beehives and Happiness at Our Christian School

“Happiness is not found within us, but rather between us. “

It was a thrill last week Thursday to join 1000 Christian Educators in Ancaster. LCES staff were inspired as we sang, prayed, and connected with provincial colleagues. We were challenged by some research underway about relationships by Dr Robert Loe.

The quote above is his. Depending on self-help books, mindfulness to find your inner “you”, and other such activities is not the route to happiness he proposed. His interesting research of measuring relationships in organizations indicate that people flourish when strong connecting relationships exist. The most vulnerable are taken care of best in communities were connecting relationships are strongest. He presented some “threats” to relationship health in our culture and context. Bees in a bee hive with unique but connected roles was offered as a visual to ponder. The hive thrives when relationships between the bees is healthy.

Relationship is the foundation of learning. Jesus showed us this in the way in which he announced a new covenant and the coming kingdom. He lived and taught in an intensely relational setting with his disciples. Can you imagine the talking on long walks, meal time conversations,  and lingering campfire debates?

LCES staff are grateful for the chance to have been able to step away to contemplate what learning looks like in 2019. It’s great to be back in the hive at LCES today.

SJ

Dividing Snacks and Loving Your Neighbour

When my brother and I were younger we shared many things. Or rather, we were required to share many things – some of which we’d rather have kept to ourselves.

Whether it was cake, dividing the very rare can of pop, or a treat of potato chips, we were often told to “divide and share.” With a level of precision that would be admired by NASA engineers, we would measure down to the mm or pour and re-balance portions so that neither would be receiving any more than they other. A ruler actually came out once to divide a dessert. Perhaps the greatest equalizer was that one divided, the other choose between the two resulting portions. I think we probably spent entirely too much time doing this while the pop was going flat or the ice cream was melting.

“Fairness doesn’t always mean sameness” 

There are some places in life where fairness does equate to the same thing being given, taken, shared, or required from everyone, but certainly not all. During a hospital emergency room visit, the split chin from a bicycle accident is trumped by the person arriving in cardiac arrest. A person living with mobility challenges is given parking priority over those who do not. In a school setting, one student’s needs call for something different, and sometimes different looks like more. It seems to be a natural tendency that our children’s first concept of fair is sameness, which home and school eventually have need to round out for wider consideration.

Following God’s command to love your neighbour often does call for us to pursue “everyone gets what they need” rather than “everyone gets the same thing.” It is far from simple for us to make this subtle shift, however when we do so we see pettiness being surpassed by empathy, and selfishness giving way to compassion.

SJ

Pizza, Learning, and Colleagues At Our Christian School

Teachers like to eat too. Last month as part of our PD day, we dove into the task of preparing food together. It joined us together in a task - and a anticipation of good eating!

Next week we'll join together with a large group. On Thursday our teachers will be heading to Ancaster Ontario to attend an Educator’s Conference with more than 700 Christian educators. Based on Luke’s gospel, the chosen theme is “The Imperative of Love” with a focus on creating a place of belonging for all. Next Friday our teachers will be back at school working on more local professional development connected to ongoing local projects and topics. I’m thankful for these chances for our teachers to be reflective and grow.  

There was a time in the past when a Christian school was like a boat on its own in a vast sea. That is no longer the case! We are blessed at LCES to have a network of support from many other key players in Christian education in Ontario and beyond that help us greatly in these matters. 

 

Organization	Website	How they help us
Edvance	www.edvance.ca	Supports local school boards stay on top of provincial matters, school finance, instruction/curriculum, and government advocacy. They organize the annual convention our staff will be attending next week.
Edifide	www.edifide.net	Human resource type support for Christian teachers serving in schools.
Christian Schools International	www.csionline.org	Curriculum, human resources, pension and health plans for staff, administrative conferences.

We also have neighbors! The Prairie Association for Christian Schools, Society for Christian Schools in British Columbia, and Christian Schools Canada are very helpful in making our school a great place to be. These organizations are part of what allows us to offer Christian education at LCES.

SJ

Coloured Beans and Belonging

Our school theme for the year is from Psalm 24:1, with emphasis on the word “belong” that we read in that text. Connected to our theme, a recent SK math lesson blurred the lines in delightful ways between math, Bible, and growth in the life of faith.

Mrs. Stortz had the students taste test green and purple coloured beans with blindfolds on and indicate their preference for either “A” or “B“. They practiced counting votes with tally marks and making observations of what they discovered.

Most thought the beans tasted very similar. Once they cut open both colours of beans, they discovered the insides were the same. They talked about how both beans belong in Gods garden, just like all kinds of people belong to God because, as one student spontaneously declared, “God only looks at our heart!“  

Here is evidence of the blessed spot we live and work in every day at LCES, where we are able to declare “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:1) and that guides all learning, regardless of the subject. What joy there is to have our students learn in a place where all things can be presented as connected, whole, and having God-intended purpose! Praise God for such moments of joyful response to God’s amazing world.

SJ

Every Child Matters

Even though most students and staff were wearing a cheerful orange shirt, there was a quieter, more reflective atmosphere in chapel this morning. The focus was on a time period in Canada’s past where first nations children were treated in ways that crushed their culture, snuffed out future opportunities, and in some cases exposed them to abuse. One might mistakenly think that this happened in times long ago and in places faraway, but that simply isn’t the case. Residential schools still existed in the 1990’s. Mt. Elgin, just southwest of London, had a residential school. Water quality on first nations reserves is still a pressing, urgent concern as exampled by Autumn Peltier, age 15, addressing the United Nations last week.

Purposefully re-visiting these past and present situations of harm and injustice and lingering there helps our students to learn. It urges them to recognize that sin exists, that people on earth can treat each other very poorly, and that it is important to make it right. It helps them to recognize that as part of society, they participate in systems that affect others deeply. It invites our students to the sense of urgency with which Christ directs us to be reconciled not only to himself, but to each other.


Reconciliation is hard work, but the world has no shortage of need for people who are competent, committed reconcilers, motivated by Christ’s call. May our students be a blessing to present and future communities they will be working in.

September 30 chapel

A Noisy Safari at Our Christian School

The happy noises of learning and living in community are always around me, especially so at my desk in my office since both the JK and SK classrooms are immediately across the hall. I frequently hear the pulse of play, social trials and successes, joyful songs, and sometimes loud complaints and frustration. Once I overheard two students struggling with a learning task. One commented to the other “So many letters. Why couldn’t they just make five?” immediately answered by a classmate with  “then we would run out of things to learn too quick.”

Our school is abuzz with the noise of learning. In the middle of that buzz is the encouraging voices of our all teachers and support staff steering keep the safari of learning moving along to next stops. I’m thankful for their ability to create the atmosphere for learning and community that they do.

“Things that are hard are often where we learn the most.”

“The right choice is the one where everyone gets what they need.”

“Our best efforts is our best response to a God that loves us so much.”

“Helping hands are gentile hands.”

“When we notice God at work, we see things more clearly.” 

These are some soundbites of wisdom from our staff. Watching and listening to our youngest learners starting of the year is exciting to me. With fresh eyes and in circumstances and surroundings very new to them, they are both experiencing the gift and challenge of living in a community of learning.

They are learning to look with their eyes in a more focused way at God’s world and recognize with their heart God’s claim and purpose for them. I really don’t mind the noise that process creates and it’s a sound I won’t grow tired of it anytime soon.

SJ

Teachers Pacing Alongside Students

A teacher’s spot is not always at the front of the classroom.

In an education class I took many years ago I was introduced to a metaphor for guiding students through the maze of academic and spiritual growth we call learning at a Christian school. Rather than a teacher solely pushing information and ideas at leaners, the author proposed a healthy balance of “pacing alongside our students, speaking truth into their lives.” There is beauty in this metaphor that I’m reminded of as I think of some learning snapshots I’ve  already noticed in the first week of learning at LCES.  

The above pictures show our teaching staff doing some of this pacing activity. We are wise to recognize that learning is an activity deeply rooted in relationships. Jesus taught us this in the way he instructed his disciples. We read of the sermon on the mount and parables where Jesus directly instructs, however we also recognize that Jesus walked dusty roads, ate bread and fish with these men, hauled nets, washed feet – all while taking hold of teachable moments about the truth of the coming kingdom. The beautiful story of the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 examples Jesus literally pacing alongside those who were struggling to understand.  There was best timing and best way of instructing in that moment and Jesus used it.

Our LCES staff are a treasure. I’m so thankful for the space they make and the time they take to pace alongside our students. They are a steady voice of challenge and encouragement as our children unpack God’s world one amazing detail at a time. Pray for them as they walk with our students, your children each day. They are doing work that has an impact today, and for eternity.

SJ

Gardens and Belonging

Many years ago a friend of mine experienced a concussion while travelling with a group. By doctor’s orders, he had to be woken up and asked questions throughout the night in order to be assured he was recovering well. On the third such occasion our alertness questions were starting to run out, so I asked “Why are we here?” The immediate response from the slumbering patient, barely awake, was a statement from his faith tradition:

In body and soul, in life and death, I am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ…

Words of identity that included belonging. That’s a significant bit of text to have memorized and “fall out” when under duress.

Our school theme of “Working in God’s garden” for 2019-20 comes from Psalm 24:1. There David boldly declares that the earth, all who live in it, and even the future potential of both belong the Lord. We pray that God will guide our community, parents, and staff as we work to make our classrooms a place of belonging that draws out the potential of your children, our students.

Our student service project this year will have us learn about and support Indwell, a Christian organization that looks to support people pursuing health, wellness, and belonging. They have a new project they are starting in London.

Welcome back to the 59^th start of a school year! May we grow in grace, and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.

SJ

Year-End Memories and Learning

Memories and Learning

During the last week of school I asked students what they remember most about this school year if they think of all they have done since September. Here are some of their answers:

“Recess when it was cold and snowy was really fun because we got to make a snowman with my friends.” (JK)

“Gym class was amazing. We got to play tag – INSIDE!”  (SK)

“I liked Track and Field Day because I got to see the big people jumping. Water Fun Day was really fun because I got soaking wet.” (Grade 1)

“Tundra Swans and Daily Five are things I will always remember.” (Grade 2)

“I liked taking the city bus for our trip because I always wondered what the inside looked like. I also really liked being able to sit in different places. [classroom with flexible seating] (Grade 3)

“I’ll remember that Ms. Appendino really, really likes art and that our classroom always get messy even after we cleaned it up.” (Grade 4)

“I didn’t know Shakespeare could be fun until we did the play. Seeing the eagles in the gym was amazing!” (Grade 5)

“The Fun Fair was noisy, but I liked the games. Our field trip to Uncle Tom’s cabin was my other favourite because it was something I hadn’t seen.” (Grade 6)

“Studying a novel study the way we did, and going to L’Arche with the LITs. It was neat to see how they did activities. (Grade 7)

“Well, Camp Medeba for sure, and all of the cooking and baking, especially making Cinnamon Buns..” (Grade 8)

It’s delightful to listen to our students summarize a year of God’s blessings. We’ve had an excellent year of growing and exploring as a community of learners.  May the Lord bless your family with safe times of exploration, connection, and relaxation as the summer holidays begin at the end of the week
.

Please continue to pray for the Lord’s leading as the board and school administration get a new school year organized for September.  

SJ

Adventure Camp and Graduation at Our Christian School

Hours and days and years and ages,
Swift as moving shadows flee;
As we scan life's fleeting pages,
Nothing lasting do we see.
On the paths our feet are walking,
Footprints all will fade away;
Each today as we enjoy it
Soon becomes a yesterday.

Our soon-to-be grade eight graduates left last week to head to Camp Medeba, an outdoor adventure camp in Muskoka. God blessed them with safety, growth, and fellowship for three days. It was a memorable trip that I was blessed to be a participant in. Swinging from trees, campfire conversations, and washing dishes with students helps you know them better. 

When our daughter was born someone sent us a congratulatory card and included “class of 2027” in the handwritten message. The sender obviously had sensed how quickly time moves our children from crib to career. I’ll have to admit, holding my 3 week old daughter at the time in my hands as I read it, the thought of a grade eight graduation felt a little far off.  I know it is coming though. I’m so thrilled that Christian education lies in wait to help my wife and I boldly assert “as for us and our household, we will serve the Lord.”  (Joshua 24:15). 

At birth, did the parents of our current graduates have any idea of the nature of the world their children would call home in 2019? Did they know the joys and challenges that awaited them, the unique identity of who their children would become, or the ways in which they would need the Lord’s help along the journey to graduation and beyond? Likely not, but I trust that the gift or Christian education in their lives for part of that journey has been a strong voice of patterning God’s truth into their lives.  I trust the same will be true for those entering JK/SK this fall!

SJ

Answering Children's Questions at Our Christian School

What’s in a question?

I heard a psychologist say that pre-school aged children ask an average of 100 questions of their parents each day. Perhaps that sounds low based on fist-hand experience with hours spent in close proximity to a curious young mind. I love to hear our student’s questions. Here are few of recent favorites:

Mr. Janssen, is Scooby-Doo non-fiction?

How did the first people make tools if they didn’t have tools?

What is a disk? Is it like a whisk? It sounds dangerous.

Mr. Janssen, is it the same weather up there? (J)

While we might become exasperated with the seemingly endless onslaught of questions, it is key to recognize that these questions represent young image-bearing children of the Lord attempting to figure out all things – from abstract ideas like love and heaven, to physical things like making a leaf whistle between their palms and painting things with water to see what they look like when wet.

The treasure of childhood discovery is a crucial time for questions to be answered in a way that causes them to grow in the life of faith. “Is there a distinctly Christian way of asking and answering questions?” asked a favorite wise voice of mine years ago. My answer would be yes! Questions and their answers should provide opportunity to see the connected nature of God’s world. It is complex in its design, and yet often simple in its beauty.

·         The story of a perfect world, sin, and its restoration back to what it was meant to be should be frequent touch stones since questions intersect faith and observations so naturally.

·         The time given to them should include the ability to stop, reflect, and marvel at who God is and how he designed the world as our home.

·         Answering questions should always leave room for our students to push the edges of known understanding. Fulfilling the commandment to “subdue creation” (Gen 1:28) remains their calling and their contributions may be different than their parents. New ways and means are possible to use the world around us in God-honoring ways that he intended.

Praise God for the opportunity to have our children’s questions in the context of a Christian school!  SJ

Leaving to Learn at Our Christian School

As principal, I’ve seen a steady stream of class trip planning sheets coming across my desk in the last months as teachers anticipated May and June. As I read them and consider the unique experiences they will be for our students, I can’t help but be excited for them. Each one opens wider a world made for them by the Lord’s hand.

God formed sky, land, and sea;

stars above, moon and sun,

making a world of color, beauty, and variety—

a fitting home for plants and animals, and us—

a place to work and play,

worship and wonder,

love and laugh.   Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testimony

The length, educational focus, and structure of the class trips are always different, but one thing remains the same. These memorable experiences are highlights of learning. Why does LCES send students on class trips? I can think of several reasons:

·         These experiences help our students to see God’s world as a place of beauty and offer experiences to develop wonder and praise for an amazing world of people and places.

·         Taking the classroom on the road creates invaluable “touchstone” moments for our students to connect previous learning or prepare working examples for future learning as they see God’s world as a connected, purposeful, and intricate place prepared for his children.

·         Students see their teacher, classmates, and even parents in a different way as they respond to different topics and ways of learning. They understand each other’s interests, passions, and talents more fully, and emerge a stronger community.

·         Students can see the world in its brokenness, and yet see hope in the ways to redeem it.

Taking the classroom on road is part of the bold assertion that indeed, Our World Belongs to God!   SJ

"Lack of Inner Compass"

While working this weekend I heard an amazing tale to learn from via a radio interview.

Leo Koretz was a financial wizard who “made” 400 million (in today’s money) around 1910 by convincing people to invest in worthless Arkansas rice farms, Panama timber operations, and then later Panama oil extraction. He was so persuasive that people begged him to take their money to invest in his financial empire. One person even threw a bundle of money over an office wall, with written instructions pleading for him to invest the funds! Every bit of the operation was fake, however, as investors who travelled to Panama found out when they showed up expecting a bustling oil empire and found nothing there. The entire operation was a fraud. He “hid” in Nova Scotia for a time before being sent back to face charges in Chicago.

The interview with the researcher got very interesting after the story was told. How could someone so talented and effective go so far astray? The response was “the lack of an inner compass” that didn’t guide him correctly. Abruptly, the interview ended to my dissatisfaction. So, why am recounting this to you

on our Christian School newsletter?

First, it is essential to realize that we aim to much more than deliver the content of learning. We seek to impart knowledge that is always accompanied with wisdom. Wisdom orients action. Our present students will eventually be charged with key leadership pieces in their life that offer, much like Mr. Koretz, the opportunity to use it for God’s kingdom or for something else. We are the training grounds for making future decisions well.

Second, the need for our children to be equipped with discernment and critical thinking to choose well in a sometime confusing world of choice and “opportunity” is essential for their future well-being. Unlike the many who were duped and hitched their dreams to Mr. Koretz’s imaginary wagon of success, we want our students to be critical thinkers with good questions that pursue truth and God’s kingdom.

What a joy that we can give our students more than a compass to find their way. 

SJ

Walking On The Road After Easter At Our Christian School

Luke 20 tells us that two disciples were walking on the road, heads hung low in disappointment as they trudged along. What to do now? This so called Saviour they had was dead, crucified by an angry mob. They were no doubt overwhelmed with the events of a week of swift progression that ended in despair. I picture them visibly shaken and disillusioned and feeling very alone.

Then Jesus, very much alive, came to join them on their plodding journey to Emmaus. Their cloud of grief and shock didn’t allow them to recognize him for who really was, and they told him all of their troubles presuming he was a talkative stranger not aware of what happened in Jerusalem.

As a child I couldn’t understand how they so easily missed him – he was right there! As an adult it is easier to understand how that happened. The story hadn’t unfolded the way they had it all figured out and they had their hopes dashed to the ground in only a few days. Their focus on the immediate had made them see the event unconnected to bold prophecies and clear promises from the prophets of old. Being so consumed with their troubles also caused them to fail to recognize God’s presence – Jesus – right there with them.

As a school that also walks a road each year with plans, there is an application of sorts for us. We organize and plan things as they make sense to us. We may find ourselves focusing on the immediate when we get tired and disillusioned. Yet God journeys with us, listening to us tell him what he already knows and has full solutions all planned our, and blesses us anyways because He knows what we need and His love knows no end.

On the roads we (and our children) walk, may we recognize our Risen Saviour. Praise God that we practice that walk every day at our Christian school.

SJ

The Resurrection and Our Christian School

“How deep the Father’s love for us,

how vast beyond all measure,

that He should give his only Son,

to make a wretch his treasure.”

Our families and our churches have already begun reflection and observance of the narratives and faith rituals of Easter. The familiar grooves of the above refrain were with me this weekend as I worked. It left me with this question in my mind:  What does the resurrection mean for the Christian School?

The gift of grace that comes from our resurrected Lord means that all of our students are not defined soley by their weakness, shortcomings, or failures.  God promises that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6) which for us and our students is a source of great encouragement to remain steadfast in our pursuit of faithful living and learning – even when success is not immediately apparent.   We are dearly loved people, all of us, and even in our brokenness God promises to do great things with us. He is our God, we are His people.

Riding a donkey, washing feet, and serving the Last Supper to his disciples – these are images for us today that ought to cause us to reflect. For us and our students, Jesus’ death and resurrection plants a vision in our minds and hearts of a radically different kingdom where power is not equated with wealth, power, or prestige. We direct our students to a kingdom that has come and is still coming that. We see evidence of it as students serve, forgive, seek justice, praise, and show grace as Christ modeled them all for us. The Christian school is a place where we look to help plant and ignite that longing to follow Christ in all areas of life, capturing the “first love” of our students and orienting it toward their creator.

In the hope of the resurrection,

SJ