Another Holiday to Celebrate

The Jewish festival celebrating God's deliverance of His people through Queen Esther falls in March this year, and so we studied the story of Esther in our class... notice a theme of God's people being courageous? Patrick, Esther, and we also studied Peter & John and Daniel from the OT. It was a GORGEOUS, warm, windy day here in Louisville, so we got to play outside for a long time, and we had our delayed Purim celebration. As is the Jewish custom on this holiday, we made groggers-- noisemakers-- and as I told the story in the warm sunshine, they either raised their tiny fists and shouted "Hooray!" at the mention of Esther or Mordechai, or they shook their noisemakers for all their worth and yelled "BOOOO" at Haaman's name. As you can imagine, they loved making noise. That's why we went outside, as they proudly announced to anyone who would listen.

I think these sorts of fun traditions help engrave these stories into their little hearts, and to remember yet another story of God's deliverence, and to start learning that there are more important things than being safe: obeying God and loving our neighbors.