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Posts Tagged ‘Easter’

Last year I made a set of Resurrection eggs to talk the kids through the Easter story over 12 days leading up to Easter Sunday. Actually, last year, I started rather late, so it went on post-Easter too.

After Easter I discovered that they sell empty plastic eggs in The Works – those shops seem to be nearly everywhere. Much easier than sending off to Baker Ross. So you could pop out this weekend and sort out a set. I was thinking that making a set would be a fun activity for the holidays. We’ll dig out our set from the cellar and maybe tweak the contents a bit.

Just to save you clicking through, here are the readings and fillings from the original post.

Day 1: Cottonwool ball soaked in perfume (not sure how authentic Elizabeth Arden Green Tea is as a fragrance)
Day 2: 5p pieces for the silver – thankfully I had some in my purse.
Day 3: Matthew 21:1-11. Donkey or palm leaf – Playmobil pot plant pieces.
Day 4: Matthew 26:26-29. Cup or bread – a Playmobil wine glass and a piece of bread.
Day 5: Luke 22:39-46, 54a. Praying hands or pipecleaner man – I stuck together some pink foam which I cut into the shape of praying hands. A little lurid in colour.
Day 6: John 19:1-7. Purple cloth. Well the cloth is maroon, but it was the best I could find.
Day 7: John 19:16-17. Cross. I made this by snipping off the bottom of one of the kids’ palm crosses and sticking it together. Shhhh – don’t tell them.
Day 8: John 19:18. Nails. Sourced from the Vicar’s tool cupboard.
Day 9: John 19:33-35. Toothpick (for the spear). Actually I used  half a cocktail stick (no toothpicks in the Vicarage), covered in silver foil.
Day 10: Matthew 27: 57-60. Rock. Some gravel from the drive. Washed.
Day 11: Mark 16:1-3. Cinnamon/cloves/spices. Had plenty of these in the cupboard.
Day 12: John 20:1-8. And nothing in the egg! This was easy.

If you’re really keen, Meredith commented last year with fifteen readings from Mark or even a series of 21 readings which you could use instead. And a Twitter friend mentioned that she’s adapted the idea for her Sunday school class. I’m hoping to extract some details from her later!

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Tyndale House, the biblical research centre in Cambridge, have produced three short video clips for Easter, with biblical scholars talking about evidence for Jesus’ trial, death and resurrection. One of the clips, where David Instone-Brewer and Peter Williams are looking at the Munich Talmud, was something I’d never heard about before – a very early Jewish manuscript tradition which speaks of the charges that were brought against Jesus. Fascinating.

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Just remembered: here’s a page with the verses for the Resurrection eggs, so you don’t have to retype. Just print out and cut them up. We Vicar’s wives need all the time-saving help we can get.

Resurrection Eggs Verses

We’ll be getting our older two to find the verses in the bible – it’s good practice!

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My Resurrection Egg outers arrived from Baker Ross yesterday. So whilst the Vicar took the kids swimming, I assembled the egg box with bible verses and visual aids. I also managed to fit three mini-eggs into each egg which I thought might encourage the kids as they go through the box. Not in the last one, though, as it’s meant to be empty, like the tomb. I plan to have other treats on hand to celebrate the last Resurrection Egg when we get that far.

So here’s a couple of rather poor photos, taken on my phone cos I couldn’t locate my camera, so you can see what they look like. In the end, we didn’t open the first one after swimming, because the Queen stayed so long gassing in the ladies’ changing room (and the Vicar couldn’t go and fetch her, obviously) that they were very late home. She had to run straight out to the Kids’ Club Easter Party as soon as she’d eaten her tea, so the Resurrection Eggs will be a holiday activity – term finishes today – hooray!

I numbered the eggs using sticky foam pieces and a marker pen

A close up of the egg ‘fillings’

The fillings were quite straightforward – it took me about an hour to assemble the whole kit. Here’s what I actually did in the end:

Day 1: Cottonwool ball soaked in perfume (not sure how authentic Elizabeth Arden Green Tea is as a fragrance)
Day 2: 5p pieces for the silver – thankfully I had some in my purse.
Day 3: Matthew 21:1-11. Donkey or palm leaf – Playmobil pot plant pieces.
Day 4: Matthew 26:26-29. Cup or bread – a Playmobil wine glass and a piece of bread.
Day 5: Luke 22:39-46, 54a. Praying hands or pipecleaner man – I stuck together some pink foam which I cut into the shape of praying hands. A little lurid in colour.
Day 6: John 19:1-7. Purple cloth. Well the cloth is maroon, but it was the best I could find.
Day 7: John 19:16-17. Cross. I made this by snipping off the bottom of one of the kids’ palm crosses and sticking it together. Shhhh – don’t tell them.
Day 8: John 19:18. Nails. Sourced from the Vicar’s tool cupboard.
Day 9: John 19:33-35. Toothpick (for the spear). Actually I used  half a cocktail stick (no toothpicks in the Vicarage), covered in silver foil.
Day 10: Matthew 27: 57-60. Rock. Some gravel from the drive. Washed.
Day 11: Mark 16:1-3. Cinnamon/cloves/spices. Had plenty of these in the cupboard.
Day 12: John 20:1-8. And nothing in the egg! This was easy.

I’m looking forward so much to starting this tonight.

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Inspired by Happy, the Vicar’s Apprentice, whose mother has an Easter tree, and Nicole at 168hrs, I have sent off to Baker Ross for plastic eggs and am planning a burst of Easter celebration in the Vicarage over the next few days.

The idea of Resurrection Eggs is a little like the Jesse Tree we have during Advent. A dozen plastic eggs each contain a small item to remind us of different stages in the Easter story. The plan is to read the bible verses and remember the Easter story together each day. I’ll take a photo once I have it all assembled.

Below are the passages and items I’m planning on using. I suspect our various Playmobil sets will be a good source for some of the pieces…

Day 1: Matthew 26:6-13. Jesus anointed at Bethany.
Cottonwool ball soaked in perfume.
Day 2: Matthew 26: 14-16. Judas agrees to betray Jesus.
5p pieces for the silver.
Day 3: Matthew 21:1-11. The triumphal entry.
Donkey or palm leaf.
Day 4: Matthew 26:26-29. The last supper.
Cup or bread.
Day 5: Luke 22:39-46, 54a. Gethsemane.
Praying hands or pipecleaner man.
Day 6: John 19:1-7. Jesus sentenced to death.
Purple cloth.
Day 7: John 19:16-17. Jesus carries his cross.
Cross.
Day 8: John 19:18. The crucifixion.
Nails.
Day 9: John 19:33-35. Jesus dies.
Toothpick (for the spear).
Day 10: Matthew 27: 57-60. Jesus placed in the tomb.
Rock.
Day 11: Mark 16:1-3. The women go to anoint the body.
Cinnamon/cloves/spices.
Day 12: John 20:1-8. The empty tomb.
And nothing in the egg!

I’m going to put together a pdf file of the references to pop in the eggs and the bible readings and I’ll blog those later in the week.

We’ll obviously be starting a bit later than we should if we want to open the empty egg on Easter Day, but as a two week Easter holiday is looming, I’m happy to be telling the story both before and after the big weekend. Now I just need to track down an empty egg carton and those Playmobil pieces.

Do you have any good Easter traditions?

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Well, I have rather failed in my spiritual discipline of blogging The Cross Centered Life this Lent. I’m about half way through reading though and am going to go and snuggle in front of the fire and finish it just now.

Despite not blogging, I have been chewing over what I’ve learnt from the book. I think I’ve been encouraged to direct my thoughts to the cross more – to the suffering of Jesus and the sovereignty of God. This has really helped me as I’ve thought about people I love who are in difficult situations. I always feel that I should be able to do something, but I know I need to trust more in God’s power and control.

Cross

If you are wanting to think more about C J Mahaney’s book, the Vicar has put all his course materials up on his blog.

Happy Easter to all my readers. I’m praying that I will be more cross centred in my life this coming year. And you too.

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