Gearing up for Easter

Is there more to Easter than a church service, a bunny, egg hunts, and a family dinner?  I know that theologically speaking, of course, there is. But when it came right down to it our celebration of Easter was not much more than that.  A one-day celebration, if you could call it that, with a bunch of mixed traditions.  As my kids grew older I wanted more from the Easter season.  I wanted a rich understanding and deep connection with what Easter really means to us as Christ followers.  I wanted it to be fun for my kids but not void of the gratitude and grace that Easter has.

As Pastors, church services are a given.  I don’t think there was ever an  Easter that my children were not in multiple church services, but something still was lacking.  We read the Easter story.  Watched cute movies about Easter.  I even made a cake for the Easter dinner in the shape of a cross.  Yet still, there was something in me that felt like we were missing the mark; maybe not all together, but we were not as close to the target as I hoped.

Then last year in a bible study I was involved in, the topic of prophecy came up – specifically the prophecies of Jesus.  As I studied and read them, I began to realize I was not as familiar with them as I thought I would be.  Sure I know the basics, but there were so many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in His life, many I didn’t remember.  And then it hit me.  What if we took the month leading up to Easter (it helped that that year Easter was at the end of a month rather than the beginning or the middle) to read the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus?  I knew my kids knew the story of Easter, but I bet they didn’t know how many prophecies that Easter alone fulfilled – not to mention Jesus’ life.

I decided that each day for the 30 days prior to Easter we would read an Old Testament prophecy about the life of Jesus.  I bought foam shaped crosses and wrote the scriptures on them with a marker.

I had my husband, who is great at building just about anything I ask, to build me a cross with a stand. I then hammered 30 nails all around to hang the crosses on after we read the verses.  Lastly, I looked up the New Testament fulfilment of the prophecies and wrote those scripture references on more crosses.  I put the 30 New Testament Bible verse in plastic eggs.

On Easter Sunday we read the last Old Testament scriptures and hung up the last little foam cross on the big wooden cross.

 My husband and I hid all the stuffed plastic eggs outside.  We told the kids to go find them.  They were expecting them to be filled with candy like they have been in the past, but as they opened them they were shocked to find more crosses with Bible verses on them.  We told them if they could match each Old Testament prophecy to the New Testament fulfilment they would each get 30 pieces of candy.

They pulled out their Bibles and worked together to match each one.  We talked about how Jesus fulfilling those prophies brings validity to Jesus being who He said He was.  We talked as a family about the importance of His death on the cross, and how He was raised from death to life.

I know there is still more that God wants from me as I head into Easter season this year!  And I am working to accomplish those things.  But I know that helping my kids understand the connection of the whole Bible to Jesus is a huge part of that.  And helping them realize that Easter is more than a holiday with candy, church, and family dinner is a starting point. I want my kids to grasp that Easter is what our faith is about – a Savior who paid the highest price imaginable to be able to spend eternity with us in Heaven.  As I keep praying for them and me to understand this revelation deeper, we will continue to have family fun with our cross matching game.

Click here for Scriptures references I used.