Learning Together - God's Wonderful Surprise April - Week 2

​April Week 2
    Greetings, Friends! Today’s posting is Week 2 for April’s story of “God’s Wonderful Surprise” found on pages 310-317 in The Jesus Storybook Bible. Biblical references about the Resurrection are found in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20.
    Children: Please read the story out loud to an adult or out loud by yourself. It is hard to imagine how very sad Jesus’s friends were that Jesus had been hung from a cross, died, and was laid in a closed tomb. Jesus, The Rescuer himself, was dead. It was not supposed to end like this! TWO LONG days passed filled with much grieving.
    But, as you have read, early on the third day, a Sunday, everything changed! Three women discovered that the giant stone had been somehow rolled away from the tomb door, Jesus’s body was nowhere to be found, and an angel in radiant white spoke of Jesus being alive again! Then, most amazingly, Mary Magdalene actually saw and talked to Jesus.  It was the most unexpected, happiest surprise ever! Jesus WAS alive again! Draw a picture of Mary Magdalene in her joy as she raced into town to tell the other friends. Please bring your art to share at our fourth Sunday gathering.
    If you were one of Jesus’s helpers, would you believe Mary’s story to be true? Do you think a dead person can be made alive again?
 Adults: The Resurrection accounts from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are considered mostly the same with a few differences. Examples -   
    Things that are the same:
    1. What day of the week it was (The first day.)
    2. They came to the tomb early in the morning
    3. The purpose of going to the tomb (Look/anoint the body.)
    4. Clothes of angels were gleaming white

    Things that are different:
    1. Who was present
    2. Whether they felt an earthquake when the stone was rolled away
    3. Amount of young men/angels (1 vs. 2) and where they appeared
    4. What precisely the angel said (Though not generally.)
    5. The precise reaction of the women present
   ~This week’s prayer: Lord, often our prayers are like Mary’s. Though we ask for one thing, You surprise us with another, but we know that God’s answers are better than ones we could ever imagine for ourselves. Amen.
Until next week’s lesson, stay safe!
Margo Greer