Words from a Shepherd’s Heart #7
Easter is THE celebration in the Christian calendar.
It’s the time of year that we celebrate why we choose to follow Jesus and what our hope is all about. This is the season that we can be intentional about teaching the story to our children and have fun doing it! This isn’t the only time we want to talk about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but it is a time that we definitely want to do it.
As a child, I remember having Easter egg hunts at home. Some were more elaborate than others. There was one year when my dad pretended to be mad that we woke them up early and lined us up for punishment only to tell us to go look for eggs (not sure why that one sticks in my memory!). I remember other years when cousins were visiting and we had a more elaborate outdoor hunt. It was also a time for special church services and meals.
My husband and I have carried on the tradition of an egg hunt on Easter morning with our boys but we’ve added a few other traditions as well. When the children were younger I made a cookie recipe with them that talked about the Easter story as we prepared the batter. Then we put them in the oven and put tape across the door to keep it shut. In the morning, the kids discovered that the tape was broken and the cookies all had hollow centers (see link below). It was a yummy treat in the morning that reminded us why we were celebrating.
Another tradition started with making a resurrection egg kit and then reusing it each year (I still have it!). It’s a great, interactive way to count down the days to Easter with Bible verses to read and questions about the story of Jesus and his last week before the crucifixion. It amazed me how much my children enjoyed opening those little plastic eggs to see what was inside, even though we had done it year after year.
What are some traditions that you had growing up? How were they meaningful to you? What do you want your children to remember when they look back on how your family celebrated Easter? Is it a time that you are intentionally talking about the story of Jesus along with all the other fun things going on? Or has Jesus been forgotten in the midst of chocolate, candy, and a holiday weekend?
If we want our children to fall in love with Jesus, they need to get to know him. By reading stories together, playing games, and making even the fun times a moment to reflect on what Jesus did for us, we are giving our children a worldview that has Jesus at the center of everything.
Here are a few more ideas for how you can do this together:
- Plan a fun night with Easter themed games and snacks, and invite some friends to join you. Talk about the joy the disciples had when Jesus rose from the dead – they wanted to celebrate!
- Have a seder meal together the week before Easter. This is a meal that is like the one Jesus and the disciples had before Jesus was arrested.
- Create your own resurrection eggs kit and choose how you want to use it. You can open one egg each night the two weeks before Easter Sunday, or make it a game where the eggs are hidden and the children hunt for them and then do the activity together.
- Act out the story. This is great for preschoolers. Choose a children’s Bible version of the story (depending on the age of your children) and decide how you want to act out each of the scenes. You can even enlist stuffies and action figures around the house to help put on the show.
- Decorate Easter eggs (either boiled, blown, paper, or other) with colours and images that represent the story of Jesus (brainstorm together what could be meaningful symbols and colours).
- Bake Easter story cookies and share them (and the story) with a neighbor, grandparents, or friends.
Resources:
Easter Story Cookies
DIY Resurrection Eggs Kit
Paper Resurrection Eggs
Easter Minute-to-win-it games
Fun Easter Games
Two ways to do a family seder meal
Sarah Cogswell is Pastor of Children & Families at The Journey Church in Moncton, NB, Canada. She and her husband, David, have been married for 23 years and are parents to three amazing teenage boys. She spent 9 years caring for children in her home, and has hosted 17 international students throughout the years. She is currently working on her Master of Divinity through Acadia Divinity College and enjoys learning and experiencing ministry and faith all at the same time. You can contact Sarah by emailing sarah@onthejourney.ca.