Making Easter Special

  I feel like for years I have made Christmas special. Starting seven weeks before Christmas I do a Sunday devotional with my family about Christmas and give them something to focus on through the week. But Easter often falls short, almost as an after thought. So this year, starting in January I started planning Easter.  I have studied and planned and studied and planned some more to make sure I get it right. I have spent weeks painting Easter Eggs with the story of the resurrection. I wanted to make sure I made it special so I took the whole holy week off to spend with my kids and make sure that it is a big deal. And thus it begins. . .

Saturday.

The evening before the Triumphal Entry Jesus had dinner with his friends Mary and Martha and Lazarus.  So this is where I decided to start my story.  (Actually we start slightly before that with the story of Lazarus being resurrected (John 11:1-44 or here is an awesome movie clip).  Then we went on to learn about how he had a dinner with his friends (John 12 1-2, 9-11).  That it was customary to serve your friends by washing their feet. But that Mary took it a step further by Anointing his feet with expensive Oil. We talked about the similarities of this with the Passover lamb's feet  being anointed with oil before they were allowed to be selected for the feast. According to Jewish custom Passover lambs were chosen six days prior to Passover, They were inspected to make sure they were free from blemish, this included all the way down to their feet which were often damaged from jumping around ins the rocky hill sides. Upon completion of the initial inspection their feet were anointed with oil to prepare them to enter the home for five days of further inspection.  At this point I introduced them to our adorable Lamb that I bought to be part of our week long festivities. We talked about the shepherds that watched over these lambs, and how it was important for the shepherds that watched over the Passover lambs, and watched for the first born lambs, were also the first to see the real Lamb of God.

We Then talked about how if it wasn't still the pandemic we would have invited friends over just like Mary and Martha did, we would probably them cookies (probably not wash their feet).  So Next year we hope to have friends over for cookies the Saturday before Holy week.  But instead this time we got Daffodils for our Neighbors, tied a bow on them and made a Note card that explained that, "Daffodils have long been a Symbol of the Resurrection.  They die, and then in the spring they come alive again and are often the first flower to bloom. We give the flower as a reminder of God's love and to thank you for your friendship.  We hope you will plant the flower somewhere to remind you year after year of God's love for you."

Charis