Jesus Died on the Cross....

Many of you have seen, have used, or do own Resurrection Eggs -- by Family Life...and organization I just happened also mention in my PREVIOUS POST.

Resurrection Eggs is a set of 12 plastic eggs. Each egg contains a small object which represents part of the Easter story. The eggs are placed in order of the story. One can use each egg and the respective object in each egg to tell the Easter story to children.

Examples: One egg contains 3 coins. The 3 coins remind us of the 30 pieces of silver Judas received for betrayin Jesus into the hands of the Jewish leaders.

Another egg contains a small leather strip -- which reminds us of teh whip used to give Jesus 39 lashes after His trial by Pilate.

My experience with Resurrection Eggs begins roughly 10 years ago.

I spent 7-8 years in my 20s teaching 3rd grade Sunday School with a delightful older woman named Sondra. Sondra was retired and had grown kids, and she absolutely ADORED her grandchildren. She has such a LOVE for the Lord and was very passionate in sharing that with children.

Sondra introduced me to Resurrection Eggs. She wanted to use them on Easter Sunday in our Sunday School class. Her passion for teaching children about Christ as well as her stage in life allowed her to purchase a set of Resurrection Eggs for each child in our Sunday School class. The kids were to receive them on Easter Sunday.

Knowing there would be visitors and a fairly large class that day, I think I recall her purchasing 25 sets or so.

*****

My Resurrection Eggs have been in my closet(s) since that time. Honestly, I think I've looked at them once since that time.

Well....this year, I KNEW I needed to pull them out since Luke is now to an age where he can start understanding important truths -- namely, why we celebrate Easter....NOT for the Easter bunny (though it's a fun part) BUT for the absolute truth that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23), that God sent His only Son to save us from those sins (John 3:16), that Jesus saved us from our sins by dying on the cross (Matthew 27), and that Jesus CONQUERED the GRAVE by rising on the 3rd day (Matthew 28).

Soooooo, here are my 10-year old (or so) Resurrection Eggs -- complete with a booklet, describing the contents of each egg.









Because Luke is young yet for these eggs, this has been a VERY SUPERVISED activity. I have merely been letting him explore each egg and the object inside.

Each time he opens an egg, I've been explaining, to the best of my ability in 2 year-old terms, what the object represents.









And, though I KNOW Luke doesn't understand nor can he repeat the entire story, I did learn this afternoon, before his nap, that he did indeed pick up on the KEY MESSAGE of Easter -- (and I quote Luke)...."Jesus died on the cross."

He said this after going through eggs several times. It's amazing what kids do pick up on, and for right now, that's the message I want him to get.

However, just before he made that statement, I asked him who rode on a donkey.

Luke simply replied, "Papa."

I'm thinking that Papa (my dad) didn't ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.