April 8th, 2012 by Kristi Stephens

This weekend we had our fourth seder together with my parents and my sister’s family!

We were also blessed to have a special guest join us again this year – Elijah showed up!

We’re spoiled to have a family friend who has led many seders in the past and also has an extensive background in theater, so he joins us in full Elijah garb!

It was a wonderful time and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed celebrating our atonement and the resurrection of Jesus this weekend!

Perhaps next year in the New Jerusalem!

April 7th, 2012 by Kristi Stephens

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

Yesterday as we thought about the power of the cross, I pulled out some Borax to make the point a little more tangible.

We filled a large mason jar with about 3 cups of hot water and stirred Borax into the water. We talked about the fact that we are completely sinful – and we can’t get the sin out of our hearts by ourselves! We can’t take the Borax back out of the water after we mixed it in!

I made two crosses out of nails, wiring them together in the middle and suspending them from a pencil with some extra wire. We put these into the jar of Borax solution and talked about Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We couldn’t solve our sin problem by ourselves – so Jesus came for us and died on the cross in our place.

Then we let the crosses sit in the solution.

Note: the first time we did this, it pretty much flopped because I didn’t put enough Borax in the water, so I added another large scoop and mixed it in. You need to make a “super saturated solution” – aka, no more Borax will dissolve and some remains at the bottom of the jar no matter how much you stir. The water will be cloudy and milky.

After I added more Borax, we still didn’t have any crystals forming; we discovered that I used nails that had some kind of anti-rust coating on them or something. The illustration pretty much falls apart when nothing forms on the crosses – then we’re just sinful and there’s no elegant solution whatsoever! :)

Thankfully, my dad came to my rescue and replaced the nails, and then we had success! You can leave these for a few hours or overnight, and crystals will form all over the crosses.

He took our sins upon Himself on the cross – taking the sin out of our hearts when we had no other hope to save ourselves.

They look beautiful in the morning sun!

His grace is amazing!

April 5th, 2012 by Kristi Stephens

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him who has set the captives free! The Tomb is Empty! He is Alive! The Lamb has come and taken awaythe sins of the world!
Next Year! In the New Jerusalem!

-From Ann Voskamp’s Christian seder printable

One of the things we have talked about throughout this week is that Jewish people who do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah are celebrating the seder differently. They are looking back to Exodus and forward to a yet future Elijah, a yet future king.

As believers in Jesus, we, too look back – we think of the work of John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lamb of God, we look back to the finished work of Christ on the cross. We look forward, as well – but we look forward to His triumphant return!

Today we celebrated the search.

We discussed the three matzoh crackers and the breaking and hiding of the afikomen. I put the three matzoh on a plate and said, “why does the number three remind us of God?” The kids fairly quickly arrived at the conclusion that we were referring to the Trinity – Father, Son, and Spirit. (If you’re intimidated about teaching your kids about the Trinity, this is a a great book!) We pulled out the middle matzoh and I broke it in two, and we talked again about Jesus, our Bread of Life, broken for us. Then I wrapped it in a towel and said, “now we’re going to hide this and you will have to search to find it. Why do you think we’re doing that?” I think I literally saw a lightbulb above AG’s head as she said, “when He was buried and then the women went looking for Him at the tomb!”

The kids searched for the Afikomen for a while (eventually they were just hiding and looking for a towel, as the matzoh had been breaking to smithereens in the process!), having a great time! I loved hearing them say, “I found the Afikomen!” :)

After that, we played “search for Elijah!” We had already discussed Elijah’s cup on the table, and that “Elijah” has already come! In Luke 1:17, Zechariah is told that his miraculous son who would later be known as John the Baptist would “go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

It is a tradition in the Jewish seder for the children to look to see if Elijah is coming to tell them about Messiah. We took a lighthearted twist on this and I had the kids play hide and seek. The “seeker” would count and then say aloud, “Where is Elijah?” Then when the “hider” was found he/she would yell, “I’m John the Baptist – behold the Lamb of God!”

It was corny, but it got the point across. :)

A seder is full of looking back and also looking forward. It has been a wonderful week of looking back at who Jesus is and what He has done – but it also builds in us an anticipation of what is to come.

Perhaps next year in the New Jerusalem…

And now I sign off to do some Good Friday planning. Are you ready to lead your children to the cross?

April 5th, 2012 by Kristi Stephens

For Day Four, AG and I worked for quite a while on this printable resurrection set. She actually told me this was her favorite thing we did all week! As I work on this post, the kids are behind me playing with this set and reenacting the story; LB has been saying over and over in his little husky voice, “that man really was the Son of God.”

Day Four was definitely a more abbreviated version of our Five Day Seder – Wednesdays are AWANA and Bible study night for us, so dinner is always rushed and crazy! I tried to have things ready ahead of time, but it still was a little bit chaotic. So, no pictures. =)

This time we focused on the lamb, and the roasted lamb bone joined the other items on our seder plate. One frivolous point: I have decided that I really do not like the smell of cooked lamb. Good thing I’m not and Israelite! This process wasn’t that enjoyable for me and I bought my lamb shank packaged up at the supermarket! Ha!

There is something about laying that big, heavy lamb shank on the seder plate that is full of emotion. The rest of the plate looks so attractive – the fresh green parsley, the sweet-smelling charoset, the white creamy horseradish… and then a large bone, such an obvious symbol of death. LB kept asking me which lamb this bone was from!

This really is one of the things I love about a seder meal, and stretching it out like this has more vivid impact both for me and my kids, I think. Everything is tangible and sensory. We can talk about the death of the lambs in the Old Testament and the death of The Lamb on our behalf… but looking at a large hunk of bone starting at you from the plate is a tangible reminder of the reality and cost of our sin.

As I was cooking the lamb (and I was clearly not enjoying it), AG and I were discussing that this process is a little bit “yucky” – and it wasn’t even our lamb. I don’t think she had thought before about the Israelites sacrificing their own cute and fuzzy little lambs. She said it was too bad that God didn’t have them sacrifice the Egyptian’s lambs instead, to make the loss of their lambs an extra plague!  But, no – it was their own. Because the weight of our sin is heavy, and the death of the lamb, the death of the innocent substitute, vividly pictures for us the cost of our redemption.

While we ate breakfast we listened to a large portion of the Passion Week accounts from the kids’ audio Bible {which, by the way, we love and recommend – and it costs less than a dollar!}. AG asked if we could “skip the part about Jesus dying.” I don’t blame her. That part is hard. It is heavy to bear. I want to skip ahead to the good news of resurrection Sunday, too!

While we ate dinner we were discussing again the meaning of the lamb. AG said softly, “the lamb died so they could live.” Just like our resurrection garden reminds us (as small sprouts are beginning to come up!), Jesus’ death brought forth life. Unless that seed fell into the ground and died… there would be no harvest, no new life coming forth.

Tomorrow is Good Friday. I urge you to not skip over it, not pretend like it’s just another day and “skip the part about Jesus dying.” The lamb shank on the plate is ugly. The crucifixion of Jesus is ugly. Our redemption is costly – and we must not turn our eyes away from what our Savior did for us to focus only on what is pretty and fun. Without Good Friday, there would be no joy of Resurrection Sunday!

Our plans are always in flex – looking back at my plan for Good Friday last year I improvised and changed a lot as we went through the day, but I am so glad we had a plan that gave structure and purpose. I’m still pondering how we will observe Good Friday this year, but you can see our plan for last year at  this link.

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