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Eden to Easter - Sunday

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halleluja

Sunday: Alive again! Halleluiah!

You need

  • Folded white cloth or tissue paper.

  • More daisies from your green space.

  • Favourite worship song.

Activity

Read The resurrection from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John or God’s

wonderful surprise from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Swap Jesus for the folded cloth/paper.

Make your garden beautiful again.

Roll the stone away. Its empty but put Jesus back into the garden, he is alive!!

This is a garden where God made a way for us to come back to him. Play your favourite worship song.

Praise Prayer

Take a ball and throw and catch it. Each time say the name of someone who you want to know Jesus and his love.

Isolation

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This week I was thinking about Isolation and how alone Jesus felt in the events leading up to the Crucifixion. As CS Lewis puts it:

“Does not every movement in the Passion write large some common element in the sufferings of our race? 

First, the prayer of anguish; not granted. 

Then he turns to his friends. They are asleep—as ours, or we, are so often, or busy, or away, or preoccupied. 

Then he faces the Church; the very Church that He brought into existence. It condemns him. This is also characteristic. In every Church, in every institution, there is something which sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. 

But there seems to be another chance. There is the State; in this case, the Roman state. Its pretensions are far lower than those of the Jewish church, but for that reason, it may be free from local fanaticisms. It claims to be just, on a rough, worldly level. Yes, but only so far as is consistent with political expediency and raison d’état. One becomes a counter in a complicated game. 

But even now all is not lost. There is still an appeal to the People—the poor and simple whom He had blessed, whom He had healed and fed and taught, to whom He himself belongs. But they have become over-night (it is nothing unusual) a murderous rabble shouting for His blood. 

There is, then, nothing left but God. And to God, God’s last words are, “Why hast thou forsaken me?”

C.S. Lewis -‘Letters to Malcolm (letter VIII)”

It is striking how alone Jesus must have felt and yet how he chose in each moment to do His Fathers will and not his own. Every day putting himself in His Fathers hands, trusting Him with his future even when it meant walking through the darkest moments feeling alone.

Often when we feel isolated or alone we comfort ourselves by giving in to our own habits and desires, sometimes choosing our will over God’s will. One writer talks about how the cross is an “I” with a line through it. It’s a choice to ‘cross’ out the I - to deny my selfish desires and choose the kingdom of God over the kingdom of Dave.

On Good Friday we remember Jesus choose to do God’s will despite his fears and loneliness so that we would never have to be alone…

'And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Romans 8:38-39

Not even Coronavirus…

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Eden to Easter - Saturday

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Saturday: Dark and quiet

You need

  • A cave or tomb made from a cup and a stone to cover the opening. Solders, either toy ones or drawn on paper.

  • Things to make a den and a torch.

Activity

Read the crucifixion of Jesus or The sun stops shining from The Jesus Storybook bible.

Make a cup cave and put Jesus inside.

Put the stone over the entrance.

Place two soldiers in front.

Jesus was so very brave but remember that he didn’t go away for long. He knew that and he told his friends that he would come back.

Think about how a caterpillar goes into a cocoon and then comes out a butterfly!

Sad Prayers

Make a tent or a den. Cut some paper into tear shapes and inside your den write God some questions. They can be hard ones. Tell God who you are missing being apart from.

Turn on the torch light and remember that Jesus is always with us because he came back to life and promised to never leave us again.

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Eden to Easter - Friday

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Friday: The sad garden

You need

  • Things to make a Jesus figure and a donkey, or just use a plastic animal! Some bread and wine (juice)

  • Cross made out of twigs or lollipop sticks tied with string.

Activity

Read Holy week story from when Jesus arrives at Jerusalem riding on a donkey to the Garden of Gethsemane. or The servant king and A dark night in the Garden from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Make Jesus and the donkey and ride him across your garden over leaves on the ground.

Jesus ate a special last dinner with his friends. He asked us to do this thing to remember what he was about to do. Place a little bread and some juice in a tiny cup for Jesus.

Jesus was then praying and crying in the garden. He was talking to God about a very hard thing he needed to do and being separated from God.

Make a cross for your garden.

Remember that Jesus died on that cross but came back 2 days later! That’s what we celebrate on Easter Sunday!!

Communion

As a family take communion together. See separate instructions for this.

Family communion

Family Communion

If you are new to taking communion as a family here are some helpful pointers to think about.

Being isolated at the moment means that we can not gather as a church community to share communion. While this may being some challenges in going about this virtually as a church fam- ily, it actually provides a real opportunity and pleasure to be able to do this as a family at home. I recognise that we may well be led through a virtual communion in one of our Sunday services fairly soon and so I wanted you to feel like your have had time to think about this in advance.

Firstly, keep it simple. Easter is a good time to chat to your children about what Easter means and to link in why use communion to remember what Jesus did. Your children are at different ages so use language that is appropriate for that and how sensitive they may be.

Frame it by linking to Christmas; something like this is when God’s amazing plan for us to have a close two way relationship started. Then say that Jesus lived on earth and showed and taught us how to live to help us to understand life better. He also showed us signs and wonders to show us he was God’s son. When the time was right he died. His body was broken so he could bridge the gap between us and God. He did this because he loves us so much.

Focus on one thing about communion. One concept is enough for children and one response too. For example, you could look at separation from God and then relationship restored, remem- brance, a chance to commit to something or to let something go, to say sorry or forgive . Think about hearts being in the right place.

There is no magic involved with the bread being his body and wine or juice being his blood. They are just symbols that Jesus gave us to help us remember the most important thing he did for us. Remember it’s not about having a snack !

Keep it fairly light and use the simple words “Jesus’ body broken for you” and “Jesus’ blood shed for you”

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Eden to Easter - Thursday

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Thursday: Stay close to Jesus, the gardener

You need

  • Flowers or birds. Make them!

  • Some fruit to grow on a vine. Grapes or raisins or any fruit you may have.

Activity

Read the from Matthew 6:25—34 and John 15 1-8, or The Singer from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Make some flowers or birds for your garden. They don’t worry! Jesus will look after us too.

Pretend that your vine is growing fruit. Jesus is the stalk and we are the branches that grow good fruit. Eat some good fruit.

Name them as Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Jesus is the gardener who grows these in our lives.

Prayer.

Activity. Make a big flower with petals. Write on the middle something you are worried about and tell this to God. Write on the petals some of the ‘fruit’ you want him to help you have more of and ask him for this.

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Eden to Easter - Wednesday

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flower

Wednesday: Jesus wants us to grow!

You need

Things to make Jesus.

  • Lollipop stick and some paper or cloth. Or make just out of paper!

  • Seeds. If you don’t have any actual seeds then you may have something similar in your kitchen cupboards, eg mustard, cumin, sesame or poppy seeds. Or just tear up little bits of paper.

Activity

Read the story of the Sower from Luke 8. I recommend The Lion Bible for Children.
Jesus came and told lots of stories that are full of truth and goodness.

Throw your seeds on a rocky part of your garden, on a thorny part and on some good soil.

Plant some green leaves where the seed would grow (the good soil)

Look at some very small seeds. Remember that Jesus said the smallest seeds can grow into big trees!

Prayer

We can grow by praying for other people. Write some names of people you want to pray for on paper and stick onto a stick. Plant it into the ground in your garden. Ask for God to grow his love in them too.

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