Easter Egg Hunting and the Resurrection Story

I realize that any attempt to combine egg-hunting (with its roots in pagan fertility rituals) and the resurrection of Jesus is going to be inherently superficial.  But I'm doing it anyway.

Resurrection Eggs are available commercially from Family Life today and there are do-it-yourself versions all over the web.  I used the instructions at cullensabcs as a jumping off point to make my own set of eggs filled with  small symbols that would serve as visual aids for telling the resurrection story.  (I've never seen the commercially available eggs in person, so I don't know how similar they may be.)

Making the Resurrection Story Eggs

To make my resurrection eggs, I started with an empty egg carton, twelve plastic eggs, and collection of small objects and pictures.  I agonized over what to include in each one and I ended up with . . .

1. A palm leaf--to represent the triumphal entry (Matthew 2:1-11)
2. A cotton ball soaked in perfume--to represent Mary pouring perfume on Jesus' feet (John 12:2-8)
3. A piece of Chex cereal--to represent the bread at the last supper (Matthew 26:17-19
4. Three dimes--to represent the money given to Judas to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:17-19)
5. A picture of praying hands--to represent Jesus praying in the garden (Matthew 26:36-46)
6. A sword--to represent Peter drawing his sword at Jesus' arrest (Matthew 26:50-54)
7. A thorn--to represent the crown of thorns placed on Jesus' head (John 19:1-3)
8. A toothpick cross and a nail--to represent Jesus carrying his cross and being nailed to it (John 19:17-18)
9. Sponge--to represent the sponge on which Jesus was given sour wine (Matthew 27:48)
10. Spices and linen--to represent Joseph preparing Jesus' body for burial (Matthew 17:59-60)
11. A small stone--to represent the stone at the entrance of the tomb (Matthew 27:60)
12. An empty egg--to represent the empty tomb (Matthew 28:5-8)

After filling each egg, I used puff paint to number them.

After this dries, if I have time, I'm planning to add some more embellishment with purple puff paint.

Egg Hunting with the Resurrection Eggs
I'm planning to hide these eggs along with some hardboiled eggs and some unembellished plastic eggs (each of the plain eggs with one jelly bean inside).

I'll instruct the kids that if they find a special egg with sparkly paint on it, that they need to bring it back to a very special basket.  I intentionally put the puff paint numbers over the joint in the egg hoping to make it less likely that they are accidentally opened.

After all the eggs have been collected, we will sit together and open the numbered eggs one at a time, recounting the amazing story of God's sacrificial love for us through Christ's death and resurrection.

Thank you, Lord, that you are rich in mercy because of the great love with which you love us, love me--despite my selfishness and constant turning away from you.   Thank you, Lord, for your sacrifice and triumph over sin and death!  

Tomb Cookies

I'm getting organized to make Tomb Cookies on the evening before Easter.  The recipe for these cookies is all over the Internet with slight variations in the accompanying scripts.

 I think I'm liking this one from All Homemade Cookies:  Easter Story Cookies.

These are a meringue sort of cookie prepared the night before Easter.  Each step and ingredient is symbolically linked to a Bible passage to be read during the baking process.  The final step is to place the cookies in a preheated oven, seal the door with tape (symbolizing the sealed tomb in which Jesus was placed), and turn off the oven .

The next morning, when the seal is broken, the kids will find finished cookies with an empty center--just as the women and disciples found an empty tomb on Easter morning.

I haven't made these before, but I'm very excited to do so this year.  I think it will build great anticipation for the kids and Christmas-morning-like excitement focused on the resurrection.

My only fear is that they'll be up at some hideous hour eager to check the oven.  Would it be theologically unsound to tell them Jesus did not rise until after 7:00 am?

Wailing through Walmart: A Lesson in Money Management

Available at Amazon

Today I was the lady with the kid who sobbed all through Walmart.

Big Brother's weekly allowance goes into three jars:  giving, saving, spending.

As we were heading the store today, he asked if he could take his spending money and buy a toy weed-eater.  He's been eying this toy for several years, so I agreed.


The toy aisle was our first stop, but, alas, the weed-eater was out of stock.  He rolled with it--no big deal--but then wanted to buy something else.  Not anything in particular--just something.

And I said, "No."

And so began our lesson in money management.  In the moment that I said no, my rationale was not perfectly clear in my mind.  My rational crystallized as we discussed it through his sobs--as we shopped for our weeks-worth of groceries, on the car ride home, and for another hour at home.

Everything we has comes from God.  We must be careful how we spend it.  When we spend money we have a budget; before shopping, we make a list of items we need.  We don't just wander through the store itching to spend money.

It especially saddened me that Big Brother kept sobbing, "I won't be happy until I buy something . . . "

Tough trip.  Since we started Big Brother's allowance, I've struggled with what the parameters should be for him using his spending money.

Today's impromptu lesson in money-management helped clarify my thinking:  We spend with forethought and planning--even if it's just toys we are buying--because we must take the best possible care of the resources with which God has blessed us.

Beef Stew with Love

In an effort to foster in our family an attitude that reflects God's heart of compassion for the hurting world, the kids and I prepared some food to deliver to the local homeless ministry.

Laying the Foundation

To engage the kids not only in what we were doing, but why we were doing it, we skipped ahead in the Bible story book that we are reading nightly through Lent, to a story book version of Matthew 25:34-40:

   “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
    “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
    “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

After reading it we talked about what Jesus was telling us we should do.  As we talked about people who don't have jobs to earn money to buy food, Big Brother piped up, "I have money.  I could go to the grocery store and buy some food to give to them."  

Yeah!  He's getting it.  His commented provided the perfect opening to suggest that he and Sis help me make some food to take to some people who were hungry.  

Making Food with Love

Together we made sugar cookies, beef stew, and sourdough biscuits.   The kids love to help with cookies, but don't usually help prepare dinners, so they found this to be a treat.  

I prepped a lot of the vegetables the night before so that Sis could be in charge of dumping them in the crock pot. 

Big Brother carefully used a small knife to cut the potatoes.

Before we left to deliver the meal, Big Brother, Sis and I prayed together thanking God for all He has provided and asking that this food would nourish and encourage the people eating it.  

I arranged the food so that each child had something to carry to be sure they were actively participating in all the steps of this giving adventure.  

Thank you, Lord for the people with the vision to run this local ministry!  I'm so thankful we were able to help in this small way; I loved the kids' enthusiastic help and plan to make this a regular activity.   

A Heart Check

It's oh so strange the things that become idols in my heart.  Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" I confess that I sometimes get a little smug and forget how true this is of my heart.

As I posted recently, God has convicted me that my heart is not broken for the lost and hurting people of the world.   After thinking and praying about ways our family could get more involved in serving and caring for people in need, I contacted the local homeless ministry to find out about donating meals.

As I began thinking about what I should make, I immediately thought about a fabulous beef stew our family has been enjoying this winter.   But as I thought through what I'd need to buy to make it, I remembered that it calls for beef broth and immediately I thought, "Oh, I'll just buy some beef broth instead of using the broth in the freezer."

Oh, the selfishness of my heart!  This is why Isaiah says that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).  


You see, the beef broth in my freezer is home made beef broth:

• It required an elaborate collection of bones that I spent months acquiring.
• I spent most of a Saturday monitoring it as it simmered in a 5 gallon pot on a propane burner in the garage.  
• In the simmering, a lot of liquid evaporated off, leaving me with less broth than I hoped for.  
• The resulting broth is packed with fabulous nutrients, minerals, and gelatin and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy to serve it to my children. 

And frankly, I don't want to share it.  


Clearly I need a heart check.  It's amazing to me that beef broth of all things has become an idol of my heart.

Father--
Please forgive my selfish heart.  May I truly make you Lord of my life, Lord of my heart, and Lord of even the beef broth in my freezer.  Please help me to have such genuine compassion for hurting people that I want to give them my best.   Amen.

Raising Kids with a Heart for the Hurting World

A Little Inconvenience in My World
A few days ago, while I was putting Baby Brother down for his nap, Sis made some serious mischief.

The empty flour canister and the culprit's shoe.

I came out of baby's room to find that Sis (age 2) was naked and coated in flour--as was the rest of my house.

The naked culprit's clothes in my flour-coated kitchen . . .

 . . . counter top . . . 

 . . . living room . . . 

 . . . the big chair . . .

 . . . the play chairs . . .

 . . . and even into the bathroom.

True Pain in the World
 As Sis waited in her room and I began attempting to de-flour my house, I tried to calm my fury.  Fortunately for all of us, in the back ground I was listening to Chris Fabry Live on the radio.  It was the first hour of his March 31st program; his guest was Kimberly Smith who works with Make Way Partners and they were talking about human trafficking.  

In the moment, I didn't hear a lot of the program--just snippets as I turned off the vacuum cleaner now and then (it takes a lot of vacuuming to clean up several pounds of flour).

Near the end, however, I heard his guest give the statistic that 80% of the world lives in extreme poverty--whole family working hard in hopes of perhaps having just one small meal for the day, many living in the shadow of war lords, drug lords, and sex traffickers.  Eighty percent.  Eight of ten.  Most.  The majority of the world.

And suddenly most of my thoughts seemed smaller than trivial:

• my frustration about the piddling inconvenience of cleaning a massive mischievous mess
• my materialistic desire to replace my ugly carpet and buy new pots for my house plants
• my obsessive desire to buy expensive hand soap and shampoo that would reduce our exposure to potentially harmful chemicals supposedly in the regular stuff
• my covetous bibliophilic desire to buy almost every book I ever hear anyone mention.

May I help cultivate His heart of compassion for the hurting world in my children. 
I don't want the spiritual heritage I'm passing on to my children to be a shallow, pampered thing of cute crafts and clever object lessons.  Not that there's anything wrong with crafts and object lessons to teach spiritual truths--scripture is full of object lessons--but at the heart of it all must be those spiritual truths that Jesus called us to live.  And they must be lived out, not just given lip service as tag lines on craft projects.

I've been studying the book of Matthew recently and again and again I see Jesus' compassion for the hurting world around Him.  If we are to live as Jesus did--what should that compassion look like in my life?  And how do I nurture that compassion in my children?

The First Step is Modeling
Do I truly have a heart for the hurting world?  Does my time-management, money-management, and prayer life reflect a heart burdened for the lost and suffering world?  Do I live this out day after day--not just for fleeting  moments after I hear a moving radio program?

I have a lot of thoughts swirling in my head right now about child sponsorship, our local homeless ministry, missionaries who visited here this fall and are now serving in Ecuador, globes . . . more posts to follow as my husband and I discuss how to more intentionally cultivate compassion in our kids.

For today, Make Way Partners has a weekly email prayer letter for which I've signed up.  I am committing to pray:

• for the needs of those hurting around the world
•  that I might have a Christ-like heart of compassion for those hurting people
• that God will help me cultivate such a heart in my children as well.  

Matthew 25:40  "The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’