Easter is just a few weeks away, and with a house filled with one questioning 8 year-old, one know-it-all 11 year-old, and one clueless 16-year-old exchange student, I find myself wondering, "How am I to tell the story of Easter?" Throughout the Old Testament we see God instructing His people during holy days to tell the next generation what God has done.
"And when you children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them,, "It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, you passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'" ~Exodus 12: 26-27
We see the same theme of this message in Leviticus 23:42-43 and Joshua 4: 4-7.
God knows that our children will always be full of questions. Our children want to know why we do what we do. Our children, with their preschool inquisitiveness, or their tween doubting want to know why we are doing this whole Easter thing. Therefore, as we prepare to celebrate Easter - the holiest and most important day of the Christian year, we should be asking ourselves, "How am I going to tell my children the story of Easter?"
I offer of the following three suggestions as a starting place.
1. We can tell the story - by reading His story.
Set aside 10 minutes a day at breakfast, or dinner, and read the Gospels together. Tell the story of the Son of God who came for the sick and the sinners. Tell the stories of His miracles. Tell the stories of His teachings. Tell the story of His sacrificial death for all of us through reading His Holy Word.
2. We can tell the story by what we set before our eyes. As we decorate our doorframes or dining room tables, we create an opportunity to set a story, or visual reminders of a story, before our children's eyes. These two front doors are telling very different stories. Use your holiday decorations to prompt the retelling for the story of Easter just like your Nativity scene does at Christmas.
We are a redeemed people of the Lord. If you have accepted the Lord as your Savior, you have a personal story of redemption to share with your children. As we approach Easter, set aside time to share your story with your children. What has the Lord done in your life? What does Easter mean to you? Now, I am not talking nitty-gritty inappropriate confessionals here, but instead, who is Jesus to you? What does your personal relationship with Him look like? It is through hearing our personal stories told that our children will begin to look for their own stories.
