Easter

The other day as I was taking Jacob to baseball practice we started talking about Easter since it is coming up. First we talked about Good Friday, and both Annalisa and Jacob (the only kids in the car at the time) asked me why it is called "Good" Friday. We talked about the fact that Jesus died for us on that day even though he didn't do anything wrong. I told them that if Jesus hadn't died for our sins then we would be lost in our sins, but God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us so that we could live forever with Him! The next thing I asked them is, "If Jesus died on Good Friday what did He do on Easter Sunday?" I thought for sure they knew the answer to this question. Annalisa thought for a minute and said, "I infer that on Easter Sunday Jesus gave us lots of candy and fun." I said, "No, that's not what Jesus did on Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the dead. He's not dead anymore! He is alive!" And Annalisa said, "Jesus lives in my heart and helps it pump so I can be alive." Jacob then remembered that when Jesus came back to life He saw His disciples again before He went to heaven, so we talked about that for a minute, but Annalisa was still concerned about the whole "easter" thing, so she asked me if it was Jesus' first Easter. I told her that yes it was the first Easter, so she asked me, "Then did the Easter Bunny bring Jesus candy?" Trying not to laugh at her real concern for something that is not important I explained to her that candy and the Easter Bunny are not what Easter is about. This prompted me to ask the kids to really think about what Easter means to them and write it down for me. I really wanted to see if they understood that it is not about hunting eggs or getting candy. I was very impressed with what each one came up with all on their own. Annalisa was the first to write and finish:

I like Easter because Jesus dide for us and in 3 days he rose again to see His people. And
He rosed out of heven to see uther people not just us. And He did not want to diy but He
wanted to diy for us so He dide for us because He wanted us to go to heven. He did not
want us to go to the devill. So He dide so we can go to heven. And that is why I like easter.

Cole was the next to finish his paper:

Good Friday and Easter are important to me because on Good Friday Jesus gave up His
life for us that aren't perfect like Him. Easter is important because on Good Friday it was
told that He would rise again in 3 days and Easter was the third day of Jesus being dead and
that was when He rose again. I like Easter and Good Friday because those days show me
how much Jesus and God love and care for us-- for Jesus to give up His life and for God to
give up His only son.

Then Jacob gave me his:

Easter is important to me because Jesus died for our sins. He rose again in three days and
visited His disciples for 40 days. Then He went to heaven. The night before He died He
prayed to not go through with that and He sweated blood. Easter is special to me because
now we can go to heaven.

I am very proud that even though they enjoy the egg hunting and candy, deep down they really do understand what Easter is about. They may miss a few things that as adults we get, but for kids they have a pretty good grasp of what it is Jesus did for us. I LOVE MY KIDS!!!