Logsdon's big adventures!

Ever since we started celebrating the feasts or moedim of YHWH, we have found that this day has been the hardest one to honor. Mostly because unlike the other moedim, this day is not one of celebration; rather, it is a day of affliction- a day of deep remorse and repentance for our sin. We fast from food and cease from our work. And yet, for believers in Messiah, it is a celebration, because our sins have indeed been covered and they have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12) He has promised that he “will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19) To highlight this atonement, we begin the day in red clothing. The red represents our sin- “’Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’” (Isaiah 1:18) Then, at some point in the day, we all change into white clothing, to highlight this change in us. That by his shed blood on the cross, we have been cleansed, and it points to our new role as “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

Typically, the story of Jonah is associated with the Day of Atonement because of Jonah’s response of repentance and obedience. So, we typically do a craft while we read the story of Jonah. We talk about how to obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22) and how God wants our whole hearts to be submitted to him and his Spirit. This was our craft this year! I traced the outline of the “big fish” on parchment paper, then had cut up a bunch of tissue paper into little squares. The kids used glue to add the squares to the inside of the fish and then we glued on a googly-eye and placed our outline of Jonah in the belly of the fish. When we finished with that, I put a black framed cutout of the same fish on the outside. Then I taped it on and cut off the excess parchment paper. Then we hung them in the window so the light could shine through! In that same way, when we are obedient to his ways, his light shines through us!

We did a second craft that focused on forgiveness. We know that in the Lord’s prayer we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12.) So, while we have been forgiven a great deal, we must also learn to forgive one another. In a household with three children, squabbles happen often, and I thought that this poem would be a great outline for teaching calming strategies and then forgiveness to my kids. We each traced our hands on flesh colored paper (using “Colors of the World” construction paper by Crayola) and then glued it on the template. The poem reads:

One, Two, Three, Four, Five

I’m waiting ’til my anger dies,

Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten,

If I’m still mad, I’ll count again.

We started with clenched fists (as they so often happen to get when we get angry) and then slowly opened them as we counted. We talked about letting go of anger and releasing the wrongs done against us. We reviewed steps in an apology- 1. Naming the offense- “I am sorry for…” 2. Then acknowledging why it was wrong- “It was wrong because…” 3. Deciding what we can do differently- “Next time I will…” and then 4. Asking for forgiveness- “Will you forgive me?”

We know that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The hands are placed upside down to form a heart and this reminds us that the greatest commands we have been given are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). It is from the love for both God and neighbor that forgiveness flows.

We also take this day to talk about sin. The Hebrew word for sin, chata, means to “miss the mark” and so we took some time for some archery practice. Our “target” is what is taught in the scriptures and in the Torah- the instructions of the Father. Yet we know that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and shooting our arrows just shows us that we will always fall short on our own. We may hit the mark occasionally, but without the righteousness of Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit, we will never be counted righteous on our own. Praise God that he “made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We also have a fire as it gets dark outside. We took this time to write down sinful attitudes or behaviors that we want the Lord to change in our lives and we threw them into the fire as an act of recognition and surrender to the only one who can change our hearts. We hope that, as in a refiner’s fire, the impurities and “dross” in our lives will be burned away until only the image of our Creator can be seen in us. We sat around the fire and read Isaiah 53, reflecting on how the Lord has worked salvation for us through his Son.

Something else we did throughout the day was each hour, we would pick something to pray about as a family. I put a bunch of prompts in this jar and it was our goal to pray for each of these things/people throughout the day.

Our table was decorated with this crimson striped tablecloth and a burlap runner (even though we personally choose to fast that day). We use this to remind us of Isaiah 53:5, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” The burlap reminds us of sackcloth and ashes- of grieving and mourning our sin. And the freshly-picked flowers remind us of new life through Messiah!

May you all be blessed as you honor Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement!