Read Luke 13:31-35 with your family.

A lament is someone thinking or saying out loud how sad they are about something happening that they wish they could have changed.

In this reading with have Jesus making a lament over Jerusalem, the city where every Hebrew person visited when they could. It was the place people could learn new ideas, and the place Jesus visited from time to time in order to teach others about how to live God’s way.

In his lament, Jesus wished he could gather everyone like a mother hen gathers her chicks.

Have you ever seen a mother hen do that, or a video? The mother makes sure there is room under her wings for her chicks, and sometimes the chicks of other hens, and covers them with her feathers, protecting them from cold or storms or other dangers.

Jesus wished he could do that with the people around him, but they were not interested in having his protection or learning from him. They did not want to live God’s way. Jesus was sad about that.