I have wanted Easter to be different this year. Don't get me wrong, the Easter bunny will still visit, but I don't want that day to be all about a pretty little dress, chocolate eggs and a colored basket. Easter means so much more to me and I want to convey that in a memorable way to my 3 year old daughter.
After searching high and low, I have found the perfect resolution. We will tell the Easter story using plastic colored Easter eggs. We made ours on Monday (I had to add a couple more eggs. I just put the name and page number of a Primary song for Monday and Tuesday night.) and it turned out great. I had Mattie help me and it ended up being like a scavenger hunt funding the items needed for each egg.
Here's how yo do it:
Gather 12 plastic eggs (the kind that open)
Prepare 12 strips of paper
Write the 12 scripture references on a slip of paper
Gather each item for the eggs (see list below)
Assemble the eggs (slips and items) and place them in a basket
Open one egg each day (need to start on Wednesday). The last egg is empty and will be opened on Easter.
- Matthew 26:26-27, 39 (sacrament cup or small cracker or chex cereal)
- Matthew 26: 48-49 (chocolate kiss)
- Matthew 26: 14-15 (3 dimes) [This fulfilled the prophecy in Zechariah 11:12-14)
- Matthew 27: 1-2 (knotted twine)
- Matthew 27: 15, 17, 21, 24-26 (chunk of hand soap)
- Matthew 27: 28-30 or Mark 15: 16-17 (square of red or purple fabric)
- Matthew 27: 31-32 (small nail or toothpick cross)
- Matthew 27: 50-51 (crushed rocks)
- Matthew 27: 57-60 (strip of white cloth)
- Matthew 27: 60, 62-66 (a small, flat stone)
- Mark 16: 1, 2-6 (bay leaf or other herb)
- Mathew 28: 5-6 (empty)
I hope you will do this with your family! This is my first year trying it, but I think it will become a new tradition. I love implementing new family traditions!
Something I have been thinking about this week is that Jesus Christ knew what was going to happen to Him. In the perfect love that only He possessed, He understood the importance of His life, mission and death. He had to die that we might each live again. What a sweet blessing! Regardless of our various beliefs, we are all recipients of that gift! His love, the love of the Son of God, crosses all boundaries and unites us.
I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.
I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.
Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me
Enough to die for me!
Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!
(“I Stand All Amazed,” Hymns, no. 193)
