Christ in Easter
As I am writing this blog, Easter is exactly one month away. Easter, the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christmas and Easter are two events on the church calendar that we most celebrate as followers of Jesus. His birth, His death and His resurrection. The annual celebratory tradition of these two events is a wonderful opportunity to disciple our children in the life of Jesus.
As we teach our children year after year about the events leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are helping them to remember. We are helping ourselves remember Jesus. Even though we may know the stories by heart and even though our kids may tell us they know the stories by heart, we continue to pause, read the stories. We remember the sacrifice of Jesus and focus on the hope that we now have as His people. We teach our children that remembering Jesus’ sacrifice and the hope we have in His resurrection is worth our time. We teach them that the story of Jesus is the most important story, and He is the most important person in our lives.
We can teach and remember these stories using creative tools. We of course read the stories in the Bible, but there are many fun and helpful to tools to use while teaching and remembering the story of Easter.
If your kids like nature and digging in the dirt, you can create a Resurrection Garden. By starting Palm Sunday, you can take a shallow terracotta planter, add another small terracotta pot as the tomb of Jesus, use soil to cover the planter and the top of the “tomb”. Next fashion three crosses from sticks you find around your yard. Place them somewhere in your garden. Next plant fast growing grass seeds all around the tomb and the planter. You can plant other plants. You can make a rock pathway, or just make it your own. You then place a big rock covering the opening of the “tomb”. On Easter Sunday morning, roll away the tomb and tell your kids, Jesus has risen! He is not here! There are many examples of resurrection gardens on Pinterest.
Another fun tool, Resurrection Eggs. They have been around for a while. However, Resurrection Eggs are an especially good tool to help younger kids interact with the story and see the object that goes along with the story. These are sold on-line, and Pinterest offers many diy options that are easy to make.
If you and your kids like to bake or cook, you can make Resurrection Rolls the night before Easter. Many fun recipes for these are on the internet. These represent the tomb with Jesus and the empty tomb on Sunday morning. You can also make a Passover Meal. As you walk through the different elements of the meal, you can teach your children what they mean and how Jesus is the Passover Lamb for all who believe. Please see link below.
With my children, I have used all of these tools to help my kids understand and celebrate Jesus and His death and resurrection. As parents, God calls us to pass the teachings of Jesus to the next generation and Easter is a wonderful time to pause and spend time in God’s Word remembering. We can engage our kids in fun and creative ways to help them remember and understand!
http://s3.amazonaws.com/a.voskamp/A_Christian_Passover_Easter_Meal_Foldable.pdf
A Christian Passover Meal
www.pinterest.com
Resurrection Garden and Resurrection Eggs