​     Welcome to you! I am glad you can join us today in the discussion of this month’s story, “Going Home,” found on pages 318-325 in The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. As usual, you and your family are invited to listen and read and create and pray around this selection.
     Children: First, sit back, relax, and enjoy listening to our story being read aloud to you. It is a story that is as important to us as Christmas and Easter.
     At story’s beginning, we join some of Jesus’ friends who are meeting secretly, hiding in an upstairs room with the door bolted shut. They were afraid for their lives, especially since Jesus had been killed on the cross.
     Jesus had been seen often since He had risen from the dead, but this was the first time for these particular friends. You can imagine how astonished they were to actually see and hear Jesus, as rumored. It would be like seeing a ghost walking and talking and eating! Even Thomas, the doubter, now believed! The friends knew that, because Jesus couldn’t stay dead, because Jesus had come alive again, that somehow everything would be all right. And so it would be!
     These same friends were with Jesus a couple of days later when Jesus taught his final lesson to them before rising to heaven in front of their very eyes! What was the happy news that Jesus wanted His friends to share with everyone? How had Jesus rescued the whole world? And how are we supposed to let everybody know this?
     Adults: The Biblical references for this story are Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 14.
     Forty days had passed since Jesus had been resurrected, and hundreds of his disciples in Galilee and Jerusalem had witnessed that Jesus was alive and well. He taught them important lessons and performed many miracles.
     For His closest friends, to be able to sit together again at table, to hear Him speak, to see Him eat, to be close to Him … One can only imagine the great joy they felt, almost bursting from happiness!
     As will be our reaction upon seeing Jesus sitting next to our Father upon our arrival in heaven. What will we say when asked, “How did you spread the word that God loves His children?”
~This week’s prayer: Dear Jesus - I need your strength to reach out in love to those both close to me and all around me. Amen
     Next week there will be one more online Learning Together lesson in May, and Sunday School will meet on May 21, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. after church services for story discussion and a craft.
     Summer recess for Learning Together and Sunday School will continue until September, when both will resume.
Wishing you a safe and happy summer,
Margo Greer