Easter : can't just throw it in your cart

I'm not associated with or selling anything other than Jesus, but this is Easter season, friends. The hope and new life we have offered to us through Christ is feeling IMPOSSIBLE to miss from here.

But I'm in Haiti. There is no Target. There are no Easter bunnies (apparently he is American). There are no Easter baskets and nothing to put in them anyway.  There ARE a lot of eggs.  But none of them are pink, or plastic, or bedazzled.

In fact, Matt and I have the difficulty and privilege of our children experiencing basically only whatEVER experience we give them for Easter.  It's whatever we make it. It means whatever we make it mean. We pick the focus. There are no chocolatey or pastel distractions, nor is there any quick-and-easy help to prepare for it.

And for years now, glam-and-shopping-free holidays in Haiti have made me re-think ALL the celebrations. If I can't just go throw it all in my cart and let that stuff shape this holiday...What IS it all about? What DO I want them to remember most? How can I make the days leading up to the big day truly about what the big day is truly about?  How can we actually MAKE this about what we SAY it's all about?

So I wanted to urge you, friends.  True Easter might be competing with a lot of distractions in your world that our Easter  in Haiti isn't competing with.  But FIGHT it.

This Easter is NOT about your child. It's not about him/her having a happy day or a bountiful basket or a memorable candy stash or a stunning, spotless wardrobe or lovely family photo.

This Easter is about coming before a perfect and Holy God and realizing that we are far too IMPerfect and UNHoly to come ANY closer.  

This Easter is about God--Just and True and Spotless--asking if we have been just and true and spotless, that we might draw near Him, and the heavy, sickening realization that the chasm between us is bottomless and forever wide. 

This Easter is about the innocent blood being spilled, the ransom being heavily paid, the heartbreaking reality that makes it possible today to grab Jesus and respond, "I am totally unclean and unworthy and unable...But your son Jesus paid for my sins on the cross" AND DRAW NEAR the heavenly Father because of it.

This Easter is about death being utterly overcome, darkness being completely wiped out, our pain being entirely transformed, as He is RISEN, He is risen indeed, today.

And baskets or no baskets, friends, those truths are TOO HUGE to miss, or to pass lightly over, or to tack on at the end of Easter with a "it's all about Jesus!"  The truths that Easter shines every spotlight on are too powerful and too foundational to pop in for 60 minutes on Easter morning and not again.

Do the eggs or don't. Get the pink dresses or put them in what you did last week, get the bunnies or hide the baskets or don't.

But don't, don't miss making Easter--and this whole Easter season, every day, 10 times a day--for your children and for ourselves all about exactly what Easter is all about.

Here's a short list of links and books and resources we are using right now or have used in years past that help these weighty truths soak in and be made clear to even the youngest kiddos, that help us keep our focus.

But if nothing else...

Read through Easter with your kiddos these next days in the Bible. Act it out, take turns reading, do a craft about it, draw it, memorize parts together, sing it, have Q&A, study it together, read it, read it again!  Eat Peeps while you read.

Day 1 (Palm Sunday) - Matthew 21:1-11
Day 2 - Matthew 21:12-20, John 12:1-14
Day 3 - Matthew 21:20-27
Day 4 - Luke 22:1-6, Mark 14:1-11
Day 5 (Last Supper) John 19:1-16, Isaiah 54:7
Day 6 (Good Friday) Mark 14:53-15:41, Isaiah 53:5-6, 1 Peter 1:18-21
Day 7 - John 19:28-42, Romans 6:22-23
Day 8 (Resurrection) - Mark 16:1-7, Matthew 28:1-20

And/Or in the Jesus Storybook Bible
         Day One: Washed with Tears
         Day Two: The Servant King
         Day Three: A Dark Night in the Garden
         Good Friday: The Sun Stops Shining
         Easter Sunday: God's Wonderful Surprise

We love these additional books/resources...
     -Mission Accomplished, Scott James  (family devos, ages 6 and up)
     -This is Easter, Bowman and McKinley (toddlers)
     -God Gave Us Easter, Lisa Bergren (toddlers)
     -Resurrection Eggs (or make them yourself!)
     -A Sense of the Resurrection download, Amanda White (young families, crafts and activities)
     -Good News! It's Easter! (toddlers)
     -The Easter Story for Children, Max Lucado

How great His love for your unique mission field. How powerful and GOOD the news He's given us to share.