My husband began by talking about Easter and the resurrection, where Christ was crucified, where His body was put when He died, etc. Then my husband asked the kids about who came to the tomb and what happened -- Jesus wasn't there.
To demonstrate, after we reviewed the story, my husband pulled out a paper sack to represent the tomb and asked one of our daughters to put a Lego guy in it to represent Jesus (I hope that's not sacrilegious) and roll up the bag.
When it came time to open the bag (when Mary came), Jesus was not there!
You should have seen the look on the kids' faces! Where did the Lego guy go? They were pretty amazed.
Well, it's pretty obvious to us, I'm sure, but just in case to make it clear, he previously cut a hole in the bottom of the bag and grabbed the Lego guy out as our daughter rolled up the bag. He hid the Lego guy in his hand until it was time to be "resurrected."
You'd think someone would have taught this part of the Easter story like this, so maybe you've never thought of it either.
After this activity, we needed to fill some Easter eggs for an activity on Friday. We asked the kids what Easter eggs have to do with the resurrection of Christ. Our 8 year old son was quick to share an answer. He said that the Easter egg is like the tomb, and when you open it up, the candy inside is like Jesus coming out of the tomb. That's good, I'm glad he can put pagan with Christian. We may as well think of it like that these days.
Then we asked, so what do Easter bunnies have to do with Easter? Our 8 year old summarized a story he'd heard at the school library about some witch and some birds and the witch turned the birds into bunnies and that's why Easter bunnies lay eggs. It was pretty funny. He knew it wasn't real, but it was the best explanation as to why in the world Easter bunnies lay eggs. I'll take the Cadbury type any day.
Then we had fun telling the kids that, really, the bunnies and eggs have more to do with Spring, which can very well remind us of Easter, but rather than focusing on them, we try and remember the resurrection of our Savior.
