Using Resurrection Eggs During Family Worship

My favorite time of year is almost here.

Spring.

Longer days, warmer breezes, television show season finales (this is a semi-serious post, but I had to throw that one in there).

Most importantly, we observe and celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ.

I don’t know if it’s even possible to label one event as the crux of Christianity, but I sort of lean towards Christ’s resurrection as being it. At any rate, Easter is my favorite holiday on the Church calendar.

In the resurrection of Christ, we have hope and eternal security that death has no hold on us!

Easter is my favorite because I love all things associated with it. I love the focus on new life, being raised with Christ, and the resurrection that is to come. I love that Christ defeated all aspects of death and I get to partake in that victory because of my union with him.

As I suggested at Advent, these special days on the Christian calendar are an excellent time to begin or return to regular Family Worship times. If you’d like to do this in your family but don’t know where to start, read on for some ideas about Easter.

This Lenten season, our family will once again pull out our set of Resurrection Eggs. We love our Resurrection Eggs! I’ve had our set for years and pull them out annually. These are invaluable tools to teach your kids the Easter narrative, its significance, and how the symbols of Easter relate to Christ’s most important work.

Lent Begins With Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is today, February 17. Lent lasts for 6 weeks until Easter. You can use the Resurrection Eggs in any number of ways during Family Worship. Here’s what we usually do.

Candles
We have three kids, and all must participate. We continue lighting three candles for family worship time (a holdover from Advent) because our kids like it. They ask to do, “Candles,” which is what we call our family worship time. Three is, obviously, a significant number in theology so there’s always an important metaphor to use with three candles. Of course, candleLIGHT can always be used for applicable illustration. Thus, we continue with candles.


Resurrection Eggs
We then will give each child an egg and instruct them not to open. We go in order and have them open the eggs one at a time. With each token, we talk about its significance and how it fits into the Easter narrative. The kids absolutely LOVE the surprise element of the closed egg. We repeat this several nights in week 1.

You can vary your treatment here: for example, the first night, you use the objects to tell the story; the second night, you read the applicable story from The Jesus Storybook Bible (awesome!) and use the objects to illustrate; the third night, you have the children tell the story using the objects; the fourth night, you review and ask the kids to make predictions as to what will happen next.

If you are using 3 eggs each week, you will only use the kit for 4 weeks. You may want to use other things during family worship on the nights you don’t use the kit or, if you’re like us, your busy schedule means that shooting for 4 nights out of seven is more realistic.


I do recommend, however, that you stretch it over the Lenten season and build the anticipation to Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. In years past, we have opened the eggs the week before Easter and gone through the kit rather hurriedly, but I don’t think it had as much impact or was as much fun as the years we’ve really taken our time.

The Lenten season is prime for teaching your children and training them in the faith. I’ll have some more ideas and suggested resources during the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

photo: morguefile  
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