Easter preparations

After speaking with several friends, I recently became convicted about how little we as modern-day Christians prepare for the celebration of our risen Savior and Lord. Why is Christmas planned, prepared, and anticipated with deliberate care for months before the big day while Easter is mostly left to "Oh, is it Palm Sunday already?" when the choir starts singing an anthem? Yes, the birth of Christ is a wonderful thing to celebrate but the resurrection of Christ is the glorious completion to why He was ever born on this earth - let us sing and celebrate! And let us mourn and grieve as we reflect upon the cross of Christ prior to the resurrection. Living in the shadow of the cross gives us greater delight as we ponder and rejoice in our living resurrected King.

So today I want to share with you what our family is planning for the next several weeks.

Lenten Candles (from Treasuring God in our Traditions by Noel Piper)
Lent is a season of waiting. In that sense it is like Advent. But while Advent waits eagerly for the appearance of the Savior, Lent waits, with heavy responsibility, for his death.

The light of the Advent candles grows brighter as we approach the Savior’s arrival. In Lent all grows darker as we draw nearer to the unthinkable—the death of God. To symbolize this, we can begin Lent with seven lighted candles. On the first Sunday, one is snuffed out. On the second Sunday, the second candle is extinguished, and so on until Good Friday, when the last one is darkened. It is as if we have seen sin growing in power and finally crucifying the Light of the World, leaving us in darkness.

But John 1:5 assures us, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” On Easter morning, all the candles shine triumphantly. The darkness cannot put out the Light.

Daily Readings during the week between Palm Sunday and Easter
We are going to read a devotional also written Noel Piper: Lenten Lights Devotional. Also during this week, we will act out different parts of the Easter story each day, probably using pipe-cleaner people and play dough. Then character of Jesus will be "buried" in the tomb on Good Friday and we will surprise the girls with the risen Jesus and empty tomb on Easter morning.

Darkness
Another idea that I found was to be in "darkness" from Friday night until Sunday morning. We're going to try this - at least eating dinner in the dark on Saturday night...a reminder of the darkness that covered the land and the darkness that sin is in our hearts.

Easter morning
Easter morning we will wake the girls up to joyful Easter music, see that the tomb is empty, light all the candles, and declare that Christ is Risen! We will rejoice to celebrate the day with God's family at church with much singing and jubilation.

Recipes:
Resurrection Rolls - For Easter Sunday dinner
Resurrection Cookies - We'll make these on the Saturday night before Easter as a review of the week's events...a reminder of the complete story of Christ's suffering and death.

Easter books and music
We have already started learning some Easter hymns and will continue to do so throughout the coming weeks. If anybody has any suggestions for meaningful Easter children's books, please share!

I hope this gives you some ideas on how we can prepare our young children for this magnificent time of year. I would love to hear your family's traditions and celebrations!