The Passion Play Through The Eyes of A Child

I hope you all had an amazing Resurrection Weekend. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed.

On Friday my family and I had the awesome privilege to view the “Savior” an original modern passion musical about Jesus, His life, fulfillment of prophesy, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. It was performed at Calvary Assembly in downtown Orlando.

My daughters sat transfixed to the stage. They loved it. My youngest who is 5 kept turning to me with questions, and statements that as an adult I thought were the cutest things in the world. I’ll admit I might be a little bias, but her passion and enthusiasm made me think.

When Jesus was being beaten she looked at me with almost tears in her eyes. When the narrator said they spit at him, compassionately she said, “Oh mommy, that’s not nice. If I would have been there I would have given him a hug.” I was grateful that throughout these scenes the action and beating was taking place behind a scrim and only shadows could be seen, so that the audience couldn’t view how brutal it was.

“I know sweetie. It wasn’t nice.” I was trying to talk to her, because I could see how upset she was. “I would have given him a hug too.” I held her close. She needed the hugs.

When Jesus resurrected and the audience viewed the actor really for the first time, my daughter got animated again. “Mommy!” she cried, “Is that the real Jesus? Is that really him?” I could see she wanted to run up on stage to this unsuspecting actor. She was ready to go hug him. Her passion warmed my heart.

“No sweetie. That’s just an actor playing Jesus.”

“But Mommy,” she tried to argue. “He looks like Jesus!” I was trying not to chuckle at her cuteness and went on to try to explain that Jesus lives in Heaven, and when we ask him into our lives he lives in our hearts.
I knew by watching my daughter the gospel came more alive to her on Friday than ever it had before. Her childlike passion and love was obvious. I kept thinking about the words of Jesus and what he spoke about childlike faith.

Matthew 18:3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Why is it that as adults so often we tend to get jaded? Maybe we’ve gone through and scene Easter weeks, Christmas, and grumpy people so much. Maybe the routines of life tend to get to us and slowly if we’re not careful the child likeness of our faith gets chocked out of us like a vice grip. In the moments of watching the passion through the eyes of my 5 –year-old I couldn’t help but be moved to tears by her faith. She was inspiring me to see the passion in her eyes. I was moved to tears.

Having childlike faith doesn’t mean we’ll be children for the rest of our lives. It means that when God tells us something we’ll simply believe it. It means that we don’t let the things of this world pile us down with weights. It means we continue to strive to not get caught up in rhetoric and routines, but come back to the simplicity of loving our father in heaven, and wanting nothing more than to climb up in his lap. It is in this manner God wants us to come to him: Simply, not complicated, and childlike into His arms. Let innocence inspire you, to do greatness in the Kindom. Remember God has awesome plans for your life. Get excited!