Remember the meaning of Easter

By Staff
Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
This Sunday will be "Resurrection Sunday" what most people call "Easter." I really don't care for the name "Easter" since I learned about its origin. The name Easter refers to a pagan goddess and the early Christian church took over the spring holiday.
The missionaries of the 2nd century figured it would be easier for Christians to celebrate about the same time the pagans did and then hopefully they would begin to convert more pagans to Christianity.
How about all those eggs, bunnies, and chicks? Well, they came from the pagan religion and symbolized fertility. Does that mean we as Christians shouldn't use them? I don't think so.
After all our Heavenly Father created those things it's how we choose to use them that make the difference.
The website www.annieshomepage.com has some terrific ideas on how to turn the focus of Easter to Resurrection Sunday. One idea I love is to use plastic eggs and number them 1 – 12.
In each egg put a small piece of paper with message on one side, a corresponding scripture on the back and a related item. I often just tell the web site to find these types of things, but this idea is so wonderful I'm going to share the whole idea.
Here's the list:
1st egg – Message: "Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people waved palm branches." Scripture: Matthew 21: 1-11 Item: palm branch.
2nd egg – Message: "Mary poured expensive perfume on Jesus' feet." Scripture: John 12: 2-8 Item: small piece of perfumed cloth or small perfume sample.
3rd egg – Message: "Jesus shared the last supper with his disciples." Scripture: Matthew 26: 17-19 Item: Chex cereal.
4th egg – Message: "Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver." Scripture: Matthew 27: 3 Item: 3 dimes
5th egg – Message: "Jesus carried his own cross." Scripture: John 19: 17 Item: Small Cross
6th egg – Message: "Soldiers placed a crown of thorns on Jesus' head." Scripture: John 19: 2 Item: Small thorny branch
7th egg – Message: "Soldiers parted Jesus' garments and cast lots for his coat." Scripture: John 19: 23 Item: Small swatch of burlap and small nail.
8th egg – Message: "Jesus was nailed to the cross and pierced in His side." Scripture: John 19: 18, 37 &John 20: 25-29 Item: nail
9th egg- Message: "They gave Jesus vinegar mixed with gall on a sponge to drink." Scripture: Matthew 27: 34 Item: small sponge
10th egg – Message: "Spices to prepare Jesus' for burial." Scripture: John 19:40 Item: 7 or 8 whole cloves
11th egg – Message: "The stone covering Jesus' tomb was rolled away." Scripture: John 20:1 Item: rock
12th egg – Message: "The napkin around Jesus' head was lying separately from His linen clothes. He was not there! He had risen!" Scripture: John 20: 6-7 Item: A scrap of line type fabric.
Annies' web site also has the "Jelly Bean Prayer". It reads: Red is for the blood He gave. Green is for the grass He made. Yellow is for the sun so bright. Orange is for the edge of night. Black is for the sins we made. White if for the Grace He gave. Purple is for the hour of sorrow. Pink is for the new tomorrow. This is a fun to put one color jelly bean in a plastic egg with a slip of paper telling what that color represents.
Another idea I love is when dying Easter eggs with children you can talk about how sin as is like the dye.
And just like we can't remove the dye from the egg, we can't remove the sin from our hearts, only Jesus can do that. Use a crayon to write Resurrection Sunday messages on them (Jesus Saves, Born Again, He Is Risen, etc.). (From Let's Make a Memory by Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson )
I hope you have a Blessed Resurrection Sunday. If you have a tip, question, or suggestion for Mom's Corner, please email it to: : moms-corner@juno.com.