God's wonderful surprise (day 55)

The resur-rection, from Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20, is re-told on page 310 of the "Jesus Storybook Bible." As Von said, "now I don't have to be sad anymore." We did two different activities. For one, we sprinkled a thin layer of cornstarch in a cake pan (at least 1 cm deep.) Then we used a medicine dropper to gently drop colored water on the cornstarch. We said the water was Jesus. After carefully shaking the cake pan side to side while it is still on the counter, The water drops disappeared! Just as Jesus was gone from the tomb.

The other thing we tried was a recipe I got from idealstolife.com called resurrection rolls. However, I did not have the marshmallows called for so I used bite-size 3 musketeers bars. FYI, they don't disappear, but they are yummy :). Since my kiddos are used to things not working as planned when we experiment, they were fine with the explanation that "although the candy is still inside the roll, Jesus was not in the tomb." Process, not product :)

the point? Jesus is alive!

The sun stops shining (day 54)

The re-telling of the crucifixion, from Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19,begins on page 302 of the JSB. The kiddos gathered sticks from outside to make a cross (one long and one short one.) We used yarn to criss-cross the sticks together. Alyse made a small one for her bear, Von wanted a large cross. Then, we acted out the story. One person was Jesus carrying Von's large cross. We all walked into the closet and pretended to nail "Jesus" on the cross. After Jesus asked his father to forgive the people, and said "it is finished," we turned out the lights. I wiggled the kids and told them it was the earthquake. After the lights came back on we took "Jesus" off the cross and carried him to the tomb, covering him with pillows.

A dark night in the garden (day 53)

Sally Lloyd-Jones shares the story of the garden of Gethsemane, from Luke 22, Mark 14, and John 18 on page 294 of her Jesus Storybook Bible. Wow, lots of tears. Anyway, after such an emotional reading it was hard to think about playing a fun game. But of course the kids don't really want to do a "not fun" thing. So, we played chase where the person tagged gets put in jail. I periodically asked them questions such as, "but did Jesus run away when they came to put him in jail?" "If Jesus had run, would they have caught him?" Amazing.

the point? THANK YOU Jesus for coming, planning to die in our place

The Servant King (day 52)

The last supper, from Mark 14 and John 13-14, begins on page 286 of the JSB. We went outside on the porch and spread a path of wax paper. On the wax paper I sprayed a stream of shaving cream. The kiddos walked in the shaving cream (it was slippery) to "dinner with Jesus." When they arrived, we washed and dried each others feet. Fyi, the wax paper path stuck to feet and blew away thus spreading some shaving cream on the concrete. Perhaps the lid from a large plastic storage box would work better??

the point? Jesus, King over all kings, came to serve

Washed with tears (day 51)

The sinful woman anointing Jesus' feet from Mark 14 and Luke 7 begins on page 280 of the Jesus Storybook Bible. We took some scented body mist and sprayed it on some no-bake clay. You can use play-dough or even make your own with this recipe on familyfun.com. After the kiddos worked it in they pressed the clay into a bowl. We talked about the perfume, the value that it had, and the gift that the woman gave Jesus. After the bowl dried Von threw his down to break it like the woman did with the jar of perfume. Alyse liked hers too much to want to break it, so we pointed out that the woman may have felt that way about her jar. The kids also sprayed some of the body mist on each others feet.

the point? Jesus came to save sinners