Dear Parents,
We hope you had a wonderful Easter celebration this year! What a privilege and a joy to celebrate this important day with our teens in High Life! We continued our lesson called Thread of Love this week. Last week we followed the thread of love all the way from Adam and Eve, Abram and the Israelites, to Jesus. And this week we focused on the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus and how that changes our lives.
We spent a good part of our time in class discussing Psalm 22 which Jesus references from the cross. This Psalm recounts much of the Israelite history and prophesies the death of Jesus. In addition, the Psalm tells of the victory that the Lord has, ending with these words: “They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!” We rejoice in knowing that God did not forsake Jesus in giving him up to the cross, but he accomplished his plan of redemption through Jesus’ sacrifice. No longer do we need the Israelites’ sacrificial system of bulls, goats, and lambs, for Jesus had paid the price for us all through his death on the cross. Praise the Lord, He has done it!
We also talked about the tearing of the temple veil and its significance in our religious history up to the present day. Historically, on the High Priest could pass through the veil and enter the Holy of Holies on a certain day. Access to God was limited. People came to God through the Levites, or priests. But when Jesus died, the Gospels recount that the veil in the temple was torn. No longer did people need to come to God through a priest. Jesus made a way for us to come directly to God.
Finally, we learned that because of Jesus sacrifice, we can now be free from slavery to sin and we can choose to do great things for Jesus. If we put our faith in his sacrifice and resurrection, then we can live transformed lives that bring Jesus to the world in a mighty way.
Ultimately, I hope that the teens saw through this series, The Thread of Love, that God has been pursuing each of them from the beginning of time. Throughout history, God has been making a way for us to come to him. He accomplished his plan through Jesus, but it wasn’t just about the people living during Jesus’ day, or about the Israelites, or even about Abram or Adam and Eve. It was about you and me, here today. His thread of love extends into each of our lives. And as we carry his love to others, it can extend into their lives too.
Blessings,
Shane, Chris, and Catherine