Happy Resurrection Day

This year we wanted to take some more small steps to making Easter more "about the Lamb than about the Bunny".  Great emails from Amanda who created Truth in Tinsel helped make prep for Easter morning super easy.  Each day she would send a different craft idea to help explain how Jesus died and rose again for us to go to Heaven.  

First, we made perfume for Jesus' feet.  

We decorated the jars

                           Filled them with liquid potpourri.  Then, for the next few days when
           we smelled this sweet smell we were reminded of Jesus and the sacrifice he made for us.

Next, we created our own "stained glass".  We talked about how Jesus was hit, kicked, pushed and everyone was mean to him. 

                       I need to take one of the finished cross.  I haven't been able to take it down yet.  

       

                                                    Next came our Resurrection basket.

We went around the yard and picked flowers and rocks and then made a tomb for Jesus.  We talked about how after Jesus died on the cross he was buried in a tomb.

We closed the tomb....

While we were out picking flowers, I picked up some broken bricks.  One for each of us.  We each confessed a sin that we have.  I wrote that sin on the brick and talked about how sin weighs us down.  

                                               Emmalynn placed our sins in our baskets.

Then, we put the Resurrection basket with the tomb and our baskets with our sins locked away in the bathroom.  We closed off this bathroom until Easter Morning.  With this, we turned the lights of Friday afternoon and only used candles.  This was a reminder that darkness fell upon the whole Earth.  Funny, at one point Janetta goes "I can't even take one step without this candle".  My reply "Ha, yep that's what Jesus wants...not one step without him leading us"

                    We prayed after we closed the "tomb" and asked Jesus to forgive us of our sins.

Later that night Matt, Janetta and I watched the Passion of Christ movie.  Followed this with having our own last supper.  I washed Janetta and Matt's feet.  Then Janetta washed mine.  Matt read through all that is recorded of the last supper.  A storm had been brewing outside since before the movie started.  Yet, no rain had started falling yet.  Hours later, right as Matt lifted the bread and began to tear it apart "BAM" thunder rolls loud as ever.  Janetta and I freeze staring out the window.  Then, he picks up the juice to pour it in the cup.  Right at the exact instant the juice began to pour, rain began to pour down.  It was the most indescribable and breath taking moment.  There is no way that was coincidence.  Our creator was watching us all night long....eagerly waiting like a daddy with a gift for 3 of his kiddos.  Telling the thunder and rain...wait, wait, it's almost time.  I felt so special to know that creator of all of the world, my father, was showing me how real he is and that he loves me.  One of the most amazing moments of my life!
                                                 
                                          Resurrection Day....the tomb is OPEN and EMPTY!

     We replaced the dead withering flowers with new ones representing the new life Jesus gives us.

                                       Our baskets are filled with life as Jesus took our bricks.

                              She loved the new basket and talking about how Jesus is in Heaven.  

Janetta's basket had a book that God used to change my life and come to see that I had some areas where I was more of a fan of Jesus than a follower.  Hope God speaks to her through it like he did me.  Then, is the picture frame for her baptism picture.

                                      Emmalynn got a puzzle that shows Jesus out of the tomb!

                             After the baskets, we headed down to the lake for Matt to baptize Janetta.

                           Death, burial, and resurrection!  Amen!  That is what Easter is all about!