A memory like an elephant

"Why did the elephant cross the road?" 

"Umm... I don't know."

"Because it was the chicken's day off!!!"

That's my little 8-year-old friend's favorite joke of all time! At least I'm assuming it is, because she's told it to me three times.  The third time she told me the joke, I said the punch line first and she got this surprised look on her face and said, "I thought you would've forgot!"

It got me thinking.  It's funny, you know, the stuff we forget and the stuff we remember.  I can remember the punch line to a joke a month after I first heard it, but I can't walk into a room and remember what I walked in there to get. 

This Sunday and next, we will be reminding the children in Waumba Land about Jesus' last days on this earth.  His triumphant entry into the city, His last meal with His friends, why He died, and when He returned just like He said He would!  

Why should we teach kids to remember all this? Forgetting comes so much more naturally. Why commemorate? Why celebrate? Why take one week a year to recognize this one event in history? 

Because while He was suffering, Jesus remembered us. He asked God to forgive us. He never forgot His purpose in God's plan for us. 

Next Sunday, when the 2-year-olds eat bread, drink white grape juice from paper cups, and imagine what it might have been like to sit at the same table with their friend Jesus, they won't just be 'having a snack'. They will be learning to remember.