Resurrection Eggs

Lately, as in the past 9 days, Kris and I have doing these "resurrection eggs" with Ethan.  The idea came from my friend Sarah who found it online (Cullinsabcs.com).  It is magnificent!  As a Christian, I am so moved by this ultimate sacrifice that God and Jesus made so that I may find my way to heaven through my Jesus. However, as a parent, there is more to the feeling than just being "moved".  I am brought to tears, and literally choked up, when I think how my heavenly Father sacrificed his ONLY son to be KILLED for OTHERS SINS! I mean, to be 100% honest, I cannot fathom giving my son up to die for you.  Just being honest here.  I love my son far too much to ever let him die for someone else.  When he is an adult, and if he decides to join the armed forces, or join a missionary that has a large element of danger to it, than that is his decision, one I probably will still struggle with, but this was NOT Jesus' desire! He says in Mark 14:34 "'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,' he said to them.  'Stay here and keep watch'".  Jesus was going to pray in the garden of Gethsemane, knowing very well that the next day he would be BETRAYED a more brutal betrayal than you or I have ever, and will likely never experience in our meager existences.  That the people he was JUST preaching to the day before would be pulled into the mob mentality and demand his death!  How they would ridicule him, and beat him, spit on him, shove a crown of thorns on his head, gamble for his clothing, laugh at his pain and suffering, all the inhumane things they did to MY Jesus!  Jesus prays for a while, then falls the the ground, BEGGING God to please let this hour pass, that God would ..."take this cup from me."  But my Jesus knew it was so much bigger than him.  He goes on to say "Yet not what I will, but what you will." (Mark 14:36). So I am literally brought to tears, how much GOD loves ME, an ugly sinner with anger management issues who idolizes finances a bit too much, who would rather play on Facebook or crochet than open my bible and READ his good word and soak it up, who is SO quick to judge others, and I am moved to tears.  Why would ANYONE allow their LOVED child to DIE for someone so UGLY?? Because I certainly wouldn't.  Period.  God must love us more than I can ever fathom.

So going back to the resurrection eggs, I really like how these eggs focus our story time at bed.  Ethan looks forward to opening his egg to see what lies inside.  Tonight, he actually shook it first to see if he could hear anything in it before he opened it.  And my heart caught for just a moment when I saw my child, whom I birthed and was so completely dependent on me for LIFE, becoming the man he will be one day. I bought this book from Mardel's called "Jesus is Risen" by Scandinavia.  Okay, this is a much older than my 2.5 year old's comprehension can handle, so we just focus on the story that matches our egg for the day.  And it has been a good pair up.  Do you know how hard it is to tell a 2.5 year old that people were mean to Jesus to the point that they KILLED him, and he DIED? And that they, very viciously, shoved a crown of thorns on his head (we told Ethan it hurt really bad and caused a lot of booboos and owies, and made him bleed, and it made Jesus sad, and the people were not being nice, they were being mean to Jesus and the crown was sharp.  I think we repeated that about 4 times.  It apparently stuck because the next day when we were summing up all the previous days and I got to the crown of thrones, he said "sharp!").  He IS NOT TOO YOUNG TO HEAR THIS.  He must know this.  If the only thing I can say I did when I go to meet my Jesus and God was to teach my son CORRECTLY Jesus' sacrifice for our sins and salvation, and I tried through my brokenness to show him the way, than that is enough for me.  But it isn't enough.  I am also given the task to show the light to you.  And him.  And her.  And how scary is that?  What if you make fun of me?  Or reject me?  That's when I have to remember, you aren't making fun of me or rejecting me; you are rejecting YOUR only way to heaven.  And only YOU and GOD can know what is in YOUR heart for repentance to Jesus.  I don't care if you donate all your money to my church, or attend every single function, and truly love people, and serve until your very last minute.  If YOU do not accept Jesus as your LORD and SAVIOR, than you aren't going to heaven.  The End.

So here are our resurrection eggs:

Day 1: Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (picture of a donkey is in his egg)
Day 2: Judas betrayed Jesus for money.  Judas was SUPPOSE to be Jesus' friend (a few nickles are in his egg)
Day 3: They broke bread and gave God thanks (a piece of bread is in his egg)
Day 4: Jesus prays for his followers (a picture of praying hands are in his egg)

Day 6: They place a crown of thorns on Jesus head (a picture of a crown of thorns is in his egg)
Day 7: They make a man completely unrelated, just passing by, to carry Jesus cross for him since he is too weak to carry it himself (a pendant from one of my necklaces, a cross, is in his egg)
Day 8: They nail Jesus to the cross, it hurt very bad.  They were very mean to Jesus, this is very sad (three nails are in his egg)
Day 9: Jesus is thirsty and someone dips a sponge in wine vinegar (soured wine basically), this is not a nice gesture (a piece of a kitchen sponge is in his egg)
Day 10: Jesus died.  They wrap him in linen and put his body in a tomb. (a piece of linen, or I put gauze which has a very Jesus' day feel to me, is in his egg)
Day 11: They rolled a giant rock over the tomb they laid Jesus in and put Roman guards outside to protect people from stealing, vandalizing, or doing anything else, Jesus body (a stone is in his egg).
Day 12: Jesus rose!  He fulfilled the scriptures! (his egg is empty!!)

A little funny story.  The day we got to the cross, I had originally had a toothpick hot glued cross in the egg.  Or so I thought.  We almost did day 12 early!  Haha, the cross fell out sometime while I was placing each item in its egg.  So I ran to my necklaces, and found a small cross, which fittingly has little red stones in it.

So as tomorrow day starts, I really want everyone to consider what took place this day over 2,000 years ago.  Even if you are not a Christian currently, so much HISTORY is tied to this EVENT.  I CHALLENGE you to compare the historical facts compared to the Bible's facts and then DENY it.  And remember, it isn't me you are denying.  It is where you will spend eternity once you die or Jesus comes to call us all home, whichever comes first.  I honestly would love to see you in heaven.  But there's only one way to heaven.  And two thousand years ago, God made that way possible.

As a side note, there is a book I read last Easter called "The Case for Easter" by Lee Strobel.  It is an excellent, easy ready if you want more proof that Jesus was beaten, crucified, DIED, buried, and rose again.  There is so much that goes into this book, that after reading it, I set it down, and all I could say was: WOW. If that doesn't make me a believer, I don't know what will.  However, friends, you must know that God has blessed me with the ability to take on anything with Faith.  That I have a very strong, unshakable faith in me.  The reason this is rare is because we are curious creatures, destined to doubt and not believe what we cannot concretely see and touch.  So God blesses his people differently (called Spiritual Gifts), such as discernment, faith, hospitality, the list goes on (like 27 of them are recognized).  He has blessed me with Faith.  I  easily accept the bible and DO NOT doubt it. Why? I do not know, I believe it to be 100% true because God said it was, and that is good enough for me.  Not everyone is like that.  So for the doubters out there, this book is a GREAT read to help answer some of the nagging questions such as did Jesus really die that day when ordinarily it took 3+ days for someone to die on the cross?  And how do we know that someone didn't just STEAL Jesus body from the tomb in order to make it LOOK like the scriptures were being fulfilled (yes the book literally, and historically, answers these questions so well, that if you are history or science geek, the evidence will speak to you). And it is less than 100 pages.