Last night I attended my first ever Bat Mitzvah. A most delightful evening. You don’t know what a Bat Mizvah is? Okay, let me explain - but to do that I need to set the scene. It has been a delight for me this past week to have my daughter Helen and grand-daughter Kirra visiting from down south. They came for a number of reasons. The most important was to meet their new niece and cousin, Kiana - my twelfth and newest grandchild. Another reason was to say goodbye before I head off to Christchurch in New Zealand for four months. This also happens to be the time of the year in which we celebrate a number of family birthdays. One of these was Kirra’s thirteenth birthday. Her parents, Ben and Helen, have had the practice of recognising their children’s move into the teenage years with a special rite of passage’. They have used it as an opportunity to affirm them in their relationship with the Lord and to challenge them to live their teenage years for God’s glory. They have taken their cue from a practice in Judaism which we today could well learn from. In Judaism there is a recognition that children are not accountable in the way that adults are. Sons and daughters are encouraged and trained to keep God’s commandments but they are still children who have not yet reached that age of accountability.
However at age 13 Jewish boys become a Bar Mitzvah’. Bar’ is the Aramaic for son’ and mitzvah’ is the Hebrew/Aramaic word for commandment’. In the case of girls it takes place a year earlier and is called a Bat Mitzvah’ - bat’ is daughter’ in Aramaic and Hebrew. In Judaism becoming a son of the commandment’ happens whether or not there is any kind of celebration. It is simply a recognition that the child has reached the age of accountability and is now responsible to God for what they do with His laws. Last Friday night, at Kirra’s Bat Mitzvah’, we did some fun things together. I was privileged to be the only male present (explanation: I represented Oma...!). Some gifts were given, some letters were read, words of advice were offered. There was food to celebrate the occasion. Above all it was a time of rejoicing in God’s goodness in Kirra’s young life. For our family this was a particularly poignant evening. Four years ago we were not sure whether Kirra would ever make it to her thirteenth birthday. In her ninth year she was diagnosed with acute leukaemia. That was the beginning of two horrendous years of intensive treatment as we as a family came to terms with the reality of cancer. During those years many prayers ascended to the Father’s throne, not only from us as a family, but also from many church communities around the nation who knew our family and who had come to hear of Kirra’s battle with cancer. At one point we even thought it was all over as Kirra was flown by air ambulance from Canberra to Sydney. All of that made last night’s celebration of Kirra’s entry into the teenage years very special.
There are two observations I would especially like to make. Too often our children move into the teenage years with a parental expectation that they will be difficult years and that we expect our teenagers to give us a hard time - and sometimes they do. This Bat Mitzvah evening proclaimed loudly and clearly: Yes, you are moving into the teenage years, and yes they will present some special challenges, but you will go with God and you will go as one who is accountable to Him to keep His commandments. There are some special benefits in such a rite of passage. In a way we are then resourcing our children for those challenges that the teenage years bring.
The other point I want to make is that we often think that we need to shelter our children from the tough things in life. Often we can’t do that anyway. However the amazing thing is that the Lord has special things to teach us in our times of trials. That’s why the author Proverbs stated, “It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.  Kirra has learnt some special lessons and her life has a certain extra dimension because she has stared death in the face’ and discovered that even in those moments God has been there for her and led her safely through.
Happy Bat Mitzvah Kirra!

John Westendorp