E-A-S-T-E-R in isolation
Easter for me, aside from Christmas, is my absolute favourite celebration of the year. There is something about specifically focusing on the events of 2000 years ago that takes the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection and brings it into reality. I remember being a little girl and being deeply touched by the services we attended, the plays that were put on and the movies I watched about it. One thing I pray is that my kids also really connect with the reality of Easter and what it means, in a really personal, life-changing way.This will be the first year ever, that we won't be heading to a church service early or heading to the Easter egg sales on Easter Monday, or fitting in lunches and celebrations with family. Life has slowed down considerably. Calendars are empty. Days are stretched out ahead of us, filled with simple tasks and activities. We literally have a blank slate to create a memorable Easter celebration for our families.
Obviously, chocolate is always going to be part of our tradition. We did it as kids and now as adults, us siblings have a more ruthless Easter egg hunt than our kids! So much fun.
But a good question is, what sort of opportunity are we creating for our little ones to connect with the Easter story and what Jesus did for them?
This will differ depending on what ages we are dealing with. Toddlers will need a very simplified depiction of what Jesus did. As kids get older, I remember it was the reality of the pain Jesus went through as I saw movies and Easter plays, that I really was impacted by and personalised what Jesus did for me. Even older kids and teenagers could be involved in a family movie like the Passion of the Christ, for example.
My kids are 5, 8 and 10. So my ideas for what we will do is tailored with that in mind.
One thing we have never done as a family at home at Easter time is communion and I wholeheartedly intend on dong that this year. We usually partake of communion at church but this Easter, I want Good Friday to be a picture of what Jesus did. The instruction from Jesus Christ Himself, was to 'do this' (take communion), in remembrance of Him. Breaking the bread, symbolic of his body, broken for us. Partaking of the wine (in our case, grape juice), symbolic of the blood He shed for us.
A little heads up? Kids will often find solemn moments highly hilarious and be completely inappropriately 'cracked up' if they are normal. As they get older, you can expect more from from them. I vividly remember as kids, getting the giggles during family prayer times and not being able to take family prayer and devotions as seriously as my parents would have liked. It wasn't that we were trying to disrespect God or the ideas being talked about, we just could not be serious without bursting out laughing. Unfortunately, my kids are the same. If we sit down to do something 'serious', one of them will feel it's their duty, to 'lighten the mood' and crack a joke. Any attempts at reigning in the jokes, only make it worse. So I've had to get creative. I find there is such a balance in teaching our kids about Heavenly Father and the Kingdom. There is so much for them to learn, so much that is so important. But one thing I've had to remind myself about is that God has a sense of humour. I just have this picture of God sitting in Heaven having a good laugh at the kids antics while parents try to make them all serious and 'respectful'. I am not for one minute saying that it is excusable if kids are themselves crossing the line in being disrespectful, but often our kids will take moments they find awkward and divert attention, and that is something us as parents have to navigate to help our kids learn and experience God in a way that gets through to their heart.
For me, sitting down at a table and talking about things doesn't produce the results I want. The kids get silly, they start laughing and joking and it all turns to custard. Doing an activity, driving and chatting, walking and chatting almost always produces better results with kids. Not all, but mine, definitely.
Here are some ideas that won't take a lot, practically, to pull off that I intend to do with our family at home to make this Easter one that connects with the kids hearts;
1. Treasure Hunt
The kids can run around the garden and look for clues that will lead them to your 'communion picnic'. You can gather them together at the end, read a short story about what Jesus did for them (grab a kids Bible for this), then allow each of them will pop off to a quiet spot, write a thank you note to Jesus for what He did and take communion either together or on their own in their quiet spot. I just know, for our family, doing this in private, will probably yield better results than all together. For even littler kids, drawing a special picture to say 'thank-you' to Jesus is also a lovely idea.
2. Special dinner for a special occasion
One thing that is a novelty is having a fancy dinner. Why not get the candles out, send out invitations to each child's room and tell them to dress up for the special occasion. Kids can help to set the table, if you have special dinnerware, this would be a great time for them to set it all up.
I will do lamb for dinner and use the dinner time, while little mouths are full of food, to tell the story of the passover. There's nothing like stories by candlelight. The kids have all watched the Prince of Egypt and we have the book, too. It shouldn't be a hard story for them to visualise. I believe for kids to really grasp what Jesus did, they need to get the basic concept of Him being the sacrificial lamb. You can talk through the fact that God told the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and that meant the angel of death 'passed over'. What a great picture for them to have in their minds as they make the connection that Jesus died just like that lamb in the old testament, so we can be saved, too.
Here's a great episode of Superbook (link here) that tells the story of the last supper, another appropriate part of the story for discussion at the dinner party.
3. Resurrection Sunday - He is risen!
Resurrection Sunday needs to have a definite difference in tone and feel. Friday and Saturday are sombre times, remembering the pain and suffering of Jesus. Sunday is party time! This needs to be the biggest praise party of the year! I'll be getting up before the kids and hiding those eggs in the garden. We usually are off to church bright and early so Easter egg hunts usually wait until later. Why not start a new tradition of something special for breakfast - maybe pancakes or bacon and eggs? Have some breakfast, read the resurrection story, tune in for the online church service, watch the Superbook version of Easter ( link in here) and then crank the music up loud for a big praise, dance party? Having something to look forward to will most likely keep the kids engaged and focused because they know they have to do the 'important' stuff first. Then when you're done with thanking and praising Jesus as a family, let the kids head out and find their eggs.
4. Crediting our account
One way that the Gospel can be explained to kids is using the analogy of Jesus 'crediting' our account with righteousness. This is such a beautiful way of explaining it. Jesus credits our account with righteousness. We can talk about the way that we are born as sinners so from the very start, our 'accounts' have nothing in them. We can never pay the price for our sin to get to God. We can talk to the kids about God wanting us to be with Him so badly, that He sent Jesus. Jesus paid for our sins and when we accept Him, He puts His righteousness in our account so we can be right with God.
5. Jesus is the BRIDGE
Another amazing visual way we can teach our kids about Jesus is explaining to them just how wide the gap was between us and God. We can put one child on one obstacle and us on the dining room table or dining room chair and talk about how we couldn't reach God. The only way we are able to get to God, to become His children and one day go to Heaven, is for Jesus to be the bridge. Have daddy or an adult stand in the middle and pass the child to 'God'. It's only by Jesus that we can get to God.
6. Robes of righteousness
Clothing and covering are other word pictures the Bible uses to describe what Jesus did for us. This is an easy one to explain and show the kids, Why not (seeing as there's nowhere the kids are going to ), allow the kids to write on themselves or choose one sibling. They need to think of all the wrong 'things' we do daily. This can be funny or just real life stuff that they do daily. It may be being mean to one another, not sharing, being jealous of a friends toy, lying to parents, being disobedient... I'm sure they'll have lots to write! Then, take them to one door in the house that you've labelled HEAVEN. Tell them that God is in Heaven but because He is Holy, no sin can be on us when we go there. The only way to get into Heaven is to get rid of the sin. Give them cloths and get them to start scrubbing. If it's permanent marker, it shouldn't be coming off. They'll soon see just how permanent the 'sin' is.
Then you can have 'Jesus' come along and provide each child with a white T-shirt. We can explain that Jesus righteousness 'covers' our sin and means that we can get in to be with God! When God looks at us, when He sees us (when we accept Jesus), He doesn't see all our sin and wrong 'stuff', He sees Jesus righteousness.
7. Authenticity trumps all
I end with this story to really challenge our perceptions of the roles we play in our little peoples walk with God. I learnt young just how much God loves children. Some of my most impacting, powerful God moments have been involving kids. One was at a Kids Church camp that I went on as a 15 year old (for all the wrong reasons, although that's another story)... I can hands down say, I had no expectations for that camp in terms of the Holy Spirit moving. I envisioned it being lots of games, lots of fun teaching about Jesus, connecting with the kids and that's about it. Well the night we gathered for our 'night session', we opened up the worship time at the end for prayer. As you can imagine, as kids do, they responded with such open hearts. Us Kids Church Leaders held hands, prayed a simple prayer for God to touch the kids as we prayed for them and as we let go hands and began walking around praying for them, I felt the fire of God on me like I never had before and never have since. I prayed for kids with what felt like fire burning in my hands and the weight of God's conviction fell on me as I had tears running down my face, realising just how much God loved those little kids and how much He wanted them to know Him.
Again, later on in life in my 20's, we did our annual beach missions trip with the youth of our church, spreading teams of 15 - 20 young people across beaches up and down the country. One year, during the kids club, we did an alter call at the end like we usually did. Kids who had come along all week to do fun games and hang out with the team, got a chance to hear about the fact that Jesus loved them, died for them and was offering a free gift of salvation. Little hands popped up inside our make-shift shade on the hillside and I was one of the team members who took the ones who had responded aside afterwards to talk them through what they had just done and give them a Bible. One of the girls, being roughly 5 year's old, started to cry while I spoke. I was initially alarmed as I had visions of angry parents coming over to extract their traumatised child from our kids club! I sat next to her and asked her causally whether she was OK. She wiped her snotty little nose and with tears running down her cheeks said she was fine, she just hadn't realised Jesus loved her so much. Of course at that point I felt another wave of realisation at just how much God loves to minister to children.
Children are on God's heart. We don't have to convince Him to come help us get our kids to Him. All we have to do is set-up the appointment. He'll do the rest.
I for one will be praying for all our beautiful babies over Easter, that they encounter the Father heart of God in a way they will NEVER forget.
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