Resurrection Eggs

Several weeks ago, I heard a commercial on the radio that went something like this: "Why does Christmas get five weeks of celebration when Easter gets maybe a week?  Maybe it's because people love babies and the celebration of new life and talk of suffering and death isn't as nice."  Those weren't the exact words and there was more to the commercial, but it really got to me.  I spent a lot of time this past Christmas building up the true meaning of the season, explaining Christ's birth to Aria.  I had planned to teach her more about Easter this year, but that commercial made me want to get started right away.  While it is wonderful to celebrate the birth of our Savior, the whole reason He came was to die for us.  He endured life on earth, was made fun of, not believed, beaten, spit on, wrongfully accused, and crucified so that MY sins could be washed away.  Whoa!  This is what's important! 

I had heard of others doing Resurrection Eggs with their kids and I had seen them in stores.  I decided to do a little research, save some money and make them myself.  I used this site as my base and changed it a bit to fit Aria's age.  I wanted to be able to read the parts of the Easter story to Aria from her Bibles or her "The First Easter" book, so I had to change some of the suggestions from that site because we didn't have any toddler resources about some of the symbols.  Turns out I didn't look carefully enough because some of the symbols I used weren't in there, either.  We made it work. 

I ended up making 20 eggs, beginning the story at Palm Sunday.  We have opened one egg per day, starting the Sunday before Palm Sunday.  Each day I read a portion, if not all, of the Easter story to Aria and we discuss what object she finds in the egg.  I compare it to an Advent calendar.  I've discovered that it is a little more difficult to explain death, sin, and Heaven to a two-year-old than it was to explain baby, God's son, and born in a barn.  But that's okay.  We'll build on it every year.  She understands that Jesus died on the cross and that He is alive.  If there is anything for her to repeat, those two statements work for me.

Here is a closer look at what we've done so far:

  Days 1-6 (Left to Right)

1. That is a dried up version of a "palm branch" or a leaf from one of our lily plants.  Aria really got into waving the palm branch and shouting "Hosanna, Hosanna!"  This represents when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and people waved palm branches and shouted for their king!
2.  The yellow egg had a washcloth in it to represent Jesus washing his disciples' feet.  Jesus did that to show his disciples how to serve others.  Washing feet would have been an even more disgusting and dirty job in those times.  Aria definitely understood this concept and has washed many feet lately.
3.  The orange egg held pieces of bread.  This represents the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples.  He broke the bread and declared it a representative of his body.  We follow Jesus' lead once a month in our church by taking Communion of bread and grape juice.  Aria understood the story, but for some reason did not want to eat the bread.
4. It is kind of hard to see, but the purple egg has praying hands in it.  This represents when Jesus went to the garden to pray after the Last Supper.  This is where Jesus prayed that God's will be done.  Aria understands praying, but it was hard to describe the specifics of this prayer.
5.  The pink egg has three dimes in it.  This represents the silver coins Judas received for betraying Jesus.  In hindsight, I maybe should not have done this one this year.  None of her Bibles had this part of the story and it was hard to explain.  She knows what money is, but doesn't understand that we pay money for things we want/need, etc.
6.  The last egg has a piece of rope in it to represent Jesus' arrest and tying his hands together.  Aria wanted to tie her hands together after reading about this.  She wasn't too fond of it and started to understand people were not being nice to Jesus. 

Days 7-12 (left to right)

7.  The green egg has a feather in it to represent the rooster crowing and Peter denying Jesus three times.  I definitely should not have done this one this year.  Her Bibles did not have the story and it was way to hard to explain.  I think I just knew she would like the feather.
8.  The yellow egg has a "crown of thorns" or a hair piece that had semi-sharp prongs on it.  When it was determined that Jesus was going to be crucified, they put the crown of thorns on his head.  This one really got to Aria.  The prongs poked her a little bit and she didn't like it.  She knew it was not nice to put the crown on Jesus and I could tell she didn't really like this part of the story.  It only gets worse.
9.  The orange egg has part of a purple washcloth in it.  It was confusing to her because it was a washcloth, but it was the piece of purple I found.  The purple cloth represents the purple robe put on Jesus to mock him as the "King of the Jews."  Aria wanted to use the washcloth to clean things again.
10.  The purple egg has a cross made out of twigs and a twist tie.  Aria knows that Jesus died on the cross and understood this egg right away.
11.  The pink egg got the most interesting reaction yet.  It is a sponge with vinegar on it to represent the sour wine that Jesus was offered to drink while on the cross.  Aria opened the egg and said, "pretty" as she saw the pink sponge.  But then she caught a whiff of it and wanted nothing to do with it.  I explained to her that they gave this to Jesus to drink and she didn't like that at all.  She wanted him to drink milk.
12.  The blue egg has part of a skewer in it to represent the spear that was put into Jesus side after he died to drain his blood.  I wasn't too graphic in explaining this to Aria and told her they poked Jesus with it.  Again, she understood that it was pain for Jesus and did not like it at all.

Stay tuned for the rest of our eggs and the happy parts of the story!