Come Awake!

"The glory of God has defeated the night! Our God is not dead, He's alive! He's alive!"




We always hunt for Easter eggs each year, sometimes, even more than once. This time we made the hunt last a little longer. We added a Bible verse to our eggs, and the kids all had to put the eggs in order. They didn't know what verse they were searching for, they just knew it had 25 eggs to it. Zech was too little to join in this game, so we hid orange eggs for him. He was thrilled as orange is his favorite color.


After the kids found most of their eggs, they dumped them out on the patio. We had a spot waiting for each egg. If they found more than one of a word, they had to put it back for the other kids to find.


If you follow my blog, all this should appear very familiar. We did a hunt similar to this a couple weeks ago, and searched for the words Jesus is Alive!

This time our verse that we were looking for was found in Luke chapter 24. We didn't include the entire thing, as that would have been too long to search for. The verse we found reads:








We didn't want to make it TOO difficult, so we had a Bible sitting on the patio table that each of the kids could use. All they needed to do was find the egg with the scripture reference on it first. After they looked it up, they had to close the Bible so the other kids couldn't sneak a peek too.


The kids really enjoyed hunting for eggs this way. It made it more of a challenge when they had a puzzle to figure out.


As everyone had a chance to finish their egg hunt, we heard a knock at the gate. The kids were very excited to see who was there! They thought it might be a girl that lives down the street coming to visit, however... they were wrong.


It was JESUS!
He told us "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20)


My favorite part was when Zechariah saw who it was. He was very excited and ran to be picked up by Jesus. He immediately showed him his elbow and said, "Jesus, look, my BOO BOO." I thought it was wonderful that he put it together, and knew exactly who Jesus is. We are always praying for him to heal our owies.


After Jesus was invited into our backyard, we had an object lesson to share with the kids. They each had a Easter gift wrapped in red paper. We asked if they knew what the red stood for, and explained that it was for blood. They knew that Jesus shed his blood for us.

We discussed with them further that Jesus dying on the cross was a gift for us. But it's up to us whether or not we accept it. And just like they must accept the present set before them, we must accept Jesus' gift of eternal life. Then we each took turns and shared about when we had asked Jesus to be in control of our lives.


When the presents were all opened, we gathered around in a circle. We had the song lyrics in our hands and sang along with a CD that was playing Christ is Risen by Matt Maher.

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, Come awake
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again!
Come awake, Come awake
Come and rise up from the grave.

It's a very powerful song if you haven't heard it!

Before our time came to an end with Jesus, he led us in communion. This was a first for my children and done very age appropriately. It was simple and to the point, not formal or liturgical. I believe it was very meaningful to the kids.


"If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?" Romans 5:17 (The Message)

Easter is not just about history, and something that happened years ago. It's about Jesus death providing the one sacrifice that would last forever. It's just as real today as it was years ago.
"What difference does it make in your life?"