Little Aaron banged on the door of his friend's house.  "Come and play," he called.  Anna came running out and shouted, "What can we play today?"  Aaron thought for a moment.  "I know," he said, "Let's play Hunt the Lion."  "Yes, let's!" shouted Anna and they ran down the street growling and roaring at the top of their voices.  She followed him through the open gates of the city and they scrambled up the step side of a hill and eventually came to an open piece of ground.

"This looks like a good place," said Anna, "There's plenty of bushes where we can hide and stalk lions."  Aaron saw some trees with long thin branches.  "There!" he exclaimed, "Those branches will make marvellous bows and arrows."  The children ran to the trees and cut off springy branches with Aaron's knife.  "You sharpen these nice straight branches to make arrows," ordered Aaron, "While I make bows from these bigger branches."

The children worked industriously and soon had two fine bows and sets of arrows.  They happily pretended to stalk lions and shot off the arrows with shouts of laughter.  "I shot three lions," boasted Anna, "And they all died in a pile right over there!"  Aaron shook his head, "I did better!  I missed with my first arrow and as the lion jumped at me I shot it right in the eye, and it landed right at my feet.  I was nearly a gonna!"

"Liar!" shouted Anna, "You just can't shoot as straight as I can!"  Aaron jumped on Anna and began to tickle her until she gave up.  Just then both children were startled as they heard an angry roar coming closer to them.  "Whatever's that?" exclaimed Aaron.  "I'm scared", said Anna and crept behind Aaron.  "Let's creep up to those bushes on the edge of the hill and see what's going on," whispered Aaron.

They carefully parted the bushes and looked down on an angry crowd.  The crowd were pushing and shoving as one man helped another to carry a rough wooden cross up the steep hill.  The children gasped as they saw that His face and back were covered with blood.  Every now and then He would stumble and fall to His knees.  The other man would help Him up while the crowd jeered and mocked Him.

"Oh, how cruel," whispered Anna, "How can they do something so horrible to such a kind looking person."  Aaron whispered, "Shush!  They'll hear you and perhaps hurt us as well."  The children watched in silence as the crowd reached the crest of the hill.  At once soldiers grabbed the man's arms while others laid the cross on the ground.  "Oh, no," murmured Aaron, "Look what they are doing now!"

The crowd grew silent as the sound of hammer blows echoed across the hill.  Anna hid her head as they hammed large nails through the man's hands and feet.  When they finished, the crowd gasped as the cross thudded into a hole that the soldiers had prepared.

"Oh, no!  Look, Anna," cried Aaron, "It's the Teacher who put His hands on us and blessed us."  Anna opened her eyes and peeped at the man on the cross.  Aaron was bolder and poked his head through a bush and found himself gazing right into the Master's eyes.  Aaron felt something touch his heart as Jesus looked at him with such a tender look of love.  Tears trickled unheeded down Aaron's cheeks as this love tugged at his heart.

Anna pulled Aaron's arm.  "Let's go," she whispered, "It's not right for us to be here."  Aaron murmured, "I can't, I must see what's going to happen to the Teacher.  I love Him so much.  You run home and tell my Mom that I'm here."  Anna crept away and Aaron lay there watching the scene before him.  He watched as Jesus cried out and died.

Tears ran down his face when eventually they took His body off the cross.  He followed a silent crowd as they carried the body to a cave and laid the body inside.  He shuddered as two strong soldiers rolled a huge stone and it thudded into place over the entrance.  As the crowd slipped away, Aaron slowly wandered home stopping every now and then as a sob shook his small body.

Later that night he poured out all he had seen to his mother and she comforted him.  Just before he fell into an exhausted sleep he sobbed, "Mom, if only the Teacher could have lived!  He was so good and He gave me such a look of love that I felt all strange inside."  His mother replied, "Yes, the Prophet was truly a good man.  I am very sad that He has been put to death."

She sat on his bed and thought for a while.  "I wonder if this is what He meant when He said, "Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends?"  Aaron didn't know.  He tossed and turned that night as he kept seeing the picture of Jesus dying on the cross.   That look of love on Jesus' face would not leave him.  "I wish He had not died, I so wanted Him to be my Friend," he whispered to himself, "Oh, why did He have to die?"

The picture of Jesus went with him for the next three days he went about silently doing whatever his parents asked him to do.  But, his ready smile and cheerful nature seemed to have left him forever.  Would a day ever come that he would be cheerful again his parents wondered?

Well, children, you will have to come next time if you want to find out!

God bless.