Love, Darcy – The True Meaning of Easter

As with Christmas, Easter is a holiday that can become completely co opted by Hallmark and Hershey. The only way to make sure your children understand the true meaning of Easter is for you to tell them in ways that make it second nature to them. If your children go to Sunday School, they have probably been talking about the triumphant entry this past Palm Sunday and now the Easter story this Sunday. However, the true meaning of Easter is such a pivotal part of our faith (probably the most pivotal), that we need to make sure our children associate more than bunnies, eggs and new clothes with the celebration. We have a stack of books that tell the real Easter story at our house and throughout the years of raising our children and now with our grandchildren, those books get read over and over again. Just last week, I sat down to read them to our two granddaughters and much to my delight Riley, who is in first grade, was able to read one of them to us herself! If you don’t have any books for your children that tell the real Easter story, get some. Any large book chain has them now, as do the Christian books stores. Also as you decorate your eggs, remind your children of the new life in Christ that is symbolized by the egg. Our kids sometimes would even decorate their eggs with symbols of faith such as the cross. One of the most effective and fun ways we taught the true meaning of Easter was with a set of “Resurrection Eggs”. For many years, we used a homemade set (see a DIY Resurrection Eggs tutorial) but now FamilyLife has a very cool set you can order from them and I think Walmart even sells them. Each egg has a symbol of the Passion Week in it and there is a story to go along with each symbol. The last egg to be opened makes the point of the resurrection in a way that your children will remember. It is empty! Hallelujah, He is risen. May you and your family experience the miracle of the resurrection not only in your hearts but in your homes this year.