Christmas at Easter?

This year's Easter celebration was unforgettable. Our Pastor has been doing a series on giving, and since we give gifts to each other on Christmas he thought Easter would be an appropriate time to give gifts to Jesus. There was a cross set up in the sanctuary and everyone young and old was encouraged to bring a special present to place at the alter.

I was excited about this opportunity, so last week I printed out an Easter coloring sheet for the kids and we talked about the true meaning of Easter.

We also decorated our gift boxes. J and I cut words out of magazine to make a collage of things we are thankful for because of Christ's sacrifice.

The kids decorated their box with stickers and filled it with their coloring sheet and some money they had collected.

Z was so excited about his little box and I was proud to watch him follow his dad up to the front of the church to lay their gifts at the foot of the cross. I thought a lot about this gesture and why we would even take the time to decorate and wrap an offering for the supreme Almighty God. I told the kids we were making gifts to give to Jesus at Easter, but I knew Jesus probably wasn't actually going to be unwrapping any presents that day. So what was the point? Then I thought back to a question I asked my dad when I was a little girl. I said "Dad, if God can hear all of our thoughts then why do we pray out loud?" and without hesitation he said "Because it increases our faith". I was probably 7 years old at the time and I will never forget that. So, even though it's probably a group of deacons that are opening these "presents" and looking my kids art work, I believe that it blesses the Father's heart, and at the same time allows us to exercise our faith.

It was also a wonderful opportunity to teach the kids that Easter is not all about bunnies and eggs, but it's really about the resurrection and salvation, which is by far the greatest gift of all.