The Jelly Bean Prayer.

[navygreen]

Jack was not feeling so great last Wednesday, and as such, Philip stayed home with him and A.J. while I went to the first Lenten mid-week service. I made it to the 7:30pm service, and all was quiet and serene. It was a wonderful time of prayer and promise, and I felt refreshed as I left the sanctuary. I also felt excited to share the Lenten time with my family the rest of this month.

Our youth group is providing meals each Wednesday evening during the services (there are two each night), and I wrote the meals on the calendar this month. We give a small, free-will donation ($12 for a family of four) to the youth group, and the Lenten meals are their largest fundraiser each year for mission trips, etc. This past Wednesday evening's meal was a Taco Bar, and the youth group laid out an impressive spread. The boys chose crunchy tacos, Philip had two soft tacos, and I feasted on a taco salad. In addition to all the taco trimmings, there was corn, fruit salad, and a dessert bar. It was a LOT of food for just 4 bucks!

Before the meal, however, we popped downstairs to make a family craft together. During just two of the Lenten Wednesdays there are planned family activities. These can be done before or after the worship service, and before or after eating (because not all families eat dinner at the church, either). Because I needed to leave early this week to see the play with Heather, we decided to arrive right at 5pm to begin our craft. We were the second family to show up, and we chose to make jelly bean treats together.

The boys gathered the necessary supplies while Philip and I staked a table. Once we were all seated, we read a copy of the Jelly Bean Prayer aloud, each taking one line to read (yes, even Jack). Here is the poem:

Red is for the blood He gave.
Green is for the grass he made.
Yellow is for the sun so bright.
Orange is for the edge of night.
Black is for the sins we made.
White is for the grace He gave.
Purple is for His hour of sorrow.
Pink is for our new tomorrow.
A bag full of jelly beans,
Colorful and sweet,
Is a prayer, is a promise,
Is a special treat.
May the joy of Christ's resurrection
Fill your heart and bless your life.

After reading, we each took a small baggie and filled it with one each of the different-colored jelly beans. Then we tied them up with ribbons and attached a copy of the prayer to each baggie. On the back of the prayers, we each wrote the name of the person we wanted to receive our gift. Philip chose to give his to Runza, I picked our mailperson, A.J. wanted to give his to his friend Parker, and Jack was excited to give his to his friend Ty. Before we left the table, we placed our small bags together in the center of the table, and we each prayer aloud for our individual recipients. Jack's prayer was so cute: "A.J., you forgot to say Amen! Oh, and God, I pray for Ty, and I hope I get to see him real quick. Amen!"

Fast-forward a day or so, and Philip had delivered his to Runza, and A.J. had placed his special gift in Parker's mailbox a few doors down. I put my baggie into our mailbox yesterday afternoon (the mail had already come for the day, though), and I put the flag up so it would be noticed for certain. Today, as A.J. brought in the mail, he handed me a pale orange slip. I was confused for a moment, not expecting any packages currently, until I turned the paper over and read the following:

Thanks for the Jelly Bean gift - That is really neat. :-) Patty

Awww. I'm glad our mailperson appreciated her gift, and I hope it blesses her in some small way.

Comments

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Did you receive all three things yet? It looked as if two things would ship together, and the third would ship separately. I picked cheapie shipping, so I wasn't able to track anything. :-/

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, the first two came with no notes, so I was really, really confused (I was like, when did I buy this stuff off my wishlist?? while I was sleeping?) The earrings came a couple of days later and had a note, which made me go: ding ding ding ding! and connect the other stuff!

Thanks so much!

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[bigbrain61.livejournal.com]

So that's what jelly beans have to do with Easter.

What about Chocolate bunnies?

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

I guess I'll have to look around some more. ;-)

[jillerbob.livejournal.com]

jelly beans are shaped like eggs. because some think the egg shape was being used at easter to represent the resurrection of christ. then in germany and france they started making choclate in the shape of eggs then came along jelly beans.

[jillerbob.livejournal.com]

thats cool that they had you pass them on to someone else. I remember those from long ago my mother was a preschool now kindergarten teacher at a Lutheran school and i remember during lent she would give those to her kids at school to help teach them about lent. It gives them something psychical to take away from their chapel time to really make a impression on what they talked about.

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

I'd made them before, but never with the intent to give them away. :-)

[shoebox_addict]

Ohh, I've heard this jelly bean prayer before, I love it! It's such a sweet little prayer that comes with a sweet little treat. ^__^

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

I've made them before, but never with the intent to give them away. That was different for me.

[shoebox_addict]

It's nice to spread the love. ^__^