April 3rd, 2012 by Kristi Stephens

Even though we were greeted this morning by the sun shining through our stained glass crosses…

…today was a harder day to get into with our Five Day Seder. It wasn’t because of uninteresting content or lack of interest… I just felt tired and worn out in general and had lots of heavy things on my mind! It was a reminder to me of how we should expect resistance when focusing on the meaning and beauty of Easter. We’re commemorating the day the head of the serpent was crushed, sin and death defeated. Of course Satan would much prefer we let it slide by with little intentional focus!

So we celebrated Jesus’ triumph at snack time with an empty tomb donut! {The trail mix is the path to the tomb!}

 The sweet taste of victory!

Tonight we continued our pattern of “traditional” seder foods with Sausage, Peppers, and Potatoes along with yeast rolls… hmm. At least the sausage was turkey and not pork. ;) I also made some charoset {ours was apples, raisins, almonds, honey, cinnamon, and a splash of grape juice} for us to have with our “seder” meal, which was very warmly received! We might be having charoset more often!

Tonight we focused on the question of “why do we dip our herbs twice?” as well as on the meaning of Elijah’s cup. This was the first meal we actually used the seder plate, now that we had a few different things to put on it!

The first time we dipped our parsley in vinegar, we talked about the salty bitterness of the tears of the Israelites in slavery, and the sadness of living in a sinful, broken world. I also filled a bowl with grape juice and put a large bunch of parsley in it, and we talked about how the Israelites were to dip the hyssop into the blood of the lamb to mark the doorways of their houses. Because the lamb died, they would live!

Once our hearts are marked with the sacrifice of Jesus, our Passover Lamb who died in our place, we will live!

Then we dipped our parsley in the charoset, we talked about the hope we have in Jesus. He wipes the tears of our suffering away and gives us hope! One day the brokenness of this world will be behind us and He will bring us into the sweetness of His presence. Earlier today AG was working on her “God time card” from church, and she was reading about Jesus preparing a place for us in heaven from John 15. The prompt said to draw a picture of her “dream house.” She didn’t know what that meant, so I told her just to draw a picture of the home she thinks Jesus is preparing for her. I LOVE what she drew! It fit so well with us talking about the sweetness of heaven! {Notice the bunch of balloons and Jesus hugging her!}

I’m so thankful that we “dip our herbs twice!” This world is broken, but the hope He gives us is sweet, indeed!

Good Friday is just a few days away! Are you ready to intentionally lead your children to the cross? Last year I received feedback that people wished they had known ahead of time what my “plan” was for the day as they wanted to do the same. If you’d like to see our schedule for the day last year on Good Friday, you can find it here. Also, if you are enjoying these posts, would you consider sharing them on facebook, twitter, or pinterest to enable others to find them, as well?

April 2nd, 2012 by Kristi Stephens

This morning the kids were begging for the second installment of our Five Day Seder at breakfast! As today’s activities involved eating horseradish, I put them off until lunch. {But who knows – perhaps an English Muffin and egg breakfast sandwich would be delicious with horseradish?}

Lunch today reminded us that Jesus laid down His life for us in love:

After lunch was over, we were ready for day two of our “seder.” Today we focused on the second question: “Why are we eating bitter herbs?”

First we talked about what “bitterness” really means, and talked about the bitter suffering of the Israelites during their time of slavery in Egypt. They were not free to leave and to worship God. We discussed how we, too, are slaves to sin without the work of Jesus on the cross – we are unable to free ourselves to truly worship and follow Him.

But when Jesus, the Bread of Life, was broken in our place and died on the cross, He took the bitterness of our sin upon Himself. We spread the horseradish (just a bit!) on a broken matzoh cracker and pointed out again that the matzoh is made without yeast, symbolizing sinless Jesus taking the punishment for our sin onto Himself. We have also been reading The Lamb by John R. Cross, which does an outstanding job of explaining the idea of a sinless substitute taking our punishment, so this terminology is very familiar to the kids.

I love how sensory-filled a seder meal is. We don’t just talk about the bitterness of sin – we taste it. We cringe because it lingers in our mouth.

Later on tonight we did our search for the “yeast!” This year I used pieces of colored tissue paper that I happened to have pre-cut and “hid” them in various places downstairs… even though they basically are in plain sight the kids get so excited about this!

After that I gave them each a feather and a paper bag and sent them to hunt for the “yeast of sin.” Using the feathers makes it a little more fun and challenging!

After they gathered up all the papers, I had them come back to the table and we used them to make a stained-glass cross. We cut cross shapes out of construction paper, and then the kids covered a piece of waxed paper with glue and tissue paper, making a colorful collage.

While they worked I used the time to reinforce to them again that the hunt for “yeast” symbolizes sin – and that Jesus took the bitterness of our sin upon Himself on the cross. When we were done, we decided to write two of the Bible verses we’ve been learning (using Seeds Family Worship’s “Seeds of Faith” cd!) onto the crosses. I love being able to tie all of these things together in their minds and hearts.

Once they dry we’ll be hanging these in the windows above our dinner table throughout the rest of Passion Week.

The kids are loving our Five Day Seder! LB wanted “another question” at dinner tonight and I told him we had to wait until tomorrow!

Good Friday is just a few days away! Are you ready to intentionally lead your children to the cross? Last year I received feedback that people wished they had known ahead of time what my “plan” was for the day as they wanted to do the same. If you’d like to see our schedule for the day last year on Good Friday, you can find it here. Also, if you are enjoying these posts, would you consider sharing them on facebook, twitter, or pinterest to enable others to find them, as well?

April 1st, 2012 by Kristi Stephens

One of the secrets I have discovered to making holidays meaningful with small children is this:

One day just doesn’t cut it.

Especially with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, I want to make these days stand out in living color to my kids. I want them to be full of fun and meaningful activities and beautiful meals – and perhaps even non-clashing clothes and hair that is combed and picture-ready.

But seriously, sometimes that is just too much to ask. Sometimes the baby spikes a fever when you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner (been there), sometimes travel plans suddenly change, and sometimes Mom can suck out all of the fun from days with extended family with expectations that are too high and a list of “meaningful projects” that is unrealistically long. Am I the only one raising my hand guiltily on that one?

We will be with my family on Easter this year, and we are looking forward to having another seder together, which is becoming a tradition! It is great fun and a wonderful thing to do together. Things do not always go as planned, however, and our kids are young. Expecting them to really soak in the meaning and Biblical truth of a Christian seder when they are seated next to their cousins for the first time in months seems like I’m aiming too high.

The solution I am attempting this year is this: the five day seder.  I hope to post about our different days of the “seder” this week – we’ll see if I can keep up!

I am using Ann Voskamp’s beautiful Christian Passover Meal printable and am planning to focus on one element of the meal per day, drawing out the discussion with our kids in various ways and pulling in some relevant activities as we can. A Passover seder meal is an exciting time to introduce children to the ideas of how the Old and New Testaments tie together, how  prophecies looked ahead to Jesus, and what His coming really meant. Slowing it down to create a framework and focus for Passion Week seems appropriate and oh-so-meaningful.

Hopefully once we spend the week working through these different elements of the seder meal, when we sit down with our extended family and put all the pieces together in our “actual” seder dinner they will better understand what we are doing and talking about.

Today’s lunch was day 1 of the seder – accompanied by the traditional food choice of Chicken Parmesan. ;)

We focused on question #1, “Why are we eating unleavened bread, or matzah, tonight?”

We talked about how yeast symbolizes sin, the speed at which God’s people had to prepare to leave Egypt and how we, too, must be prepared for his return at any moment. We talked about the symbolism of the matzoh crackers and how they remind us that by His stripes we are healed – and that He tells us to remember His body, broken for us. It was a great discussion and AG and LB seemed to be very much in tune to these truths, which is exciting for a 6 and 4 year old!

On the agenda for tomorrow: making matzoh toffee {or at least some time this week when I get some chocolate chips!}, and doing a “hunt” for “yeast” in the house! We did this last year and AG requested we do it again – I give the kids feathers and bags and have them hunt for pieces of paper (“yeast”) that I hide in the house, which is our own version of the much more involved actual Jewish tradition. :) When they find some “yeast” they sweep it into their bag with a feather, and at the end we count how many pieces each child found.

Our five day seder is off to a good start.

A note on the seder dishes: When I started thinking of doing something like this, I knew I wanted to have a seder plate. I searched and searched online to find a nice but low-priced option. Nothing compares – in price, meaning or appearance, in my opinion – to this beautiful set full of Scriptural truth from Dayspring.com.

These gorgeous “Light of the World” candle holders will be staying out on our table often!

“I am the True Vine” goblet…

Absolutely beautiful seder plate, unlike anything I have ever seen.

Each of the pieces has a great weight and quality to it, and the prices are unbelievable right now! I was having trouble finding even a plain melamine seder plate for the price of this gorgeous one from Dayspring.

As I pulled them out AG and LB right away began discussing what each piece said and how they remind us of Jesus. I absolutely love this set and am so glad to have this beautiful way to display such profound truth in the center of our table throughout Passion week.

Oh, Lord – this week turn our eyes to You, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world!

Dayspring provided the items above in exchange for my review. All opinions are entirely my own.

July 8th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Image from visualbiblealive.com

Yesterday, we looked at how God was revealing Himself powerfully through the plagues against Egypt – these were not random acts of destruction, they were theological statements introducing Him as the LORD, the only true God. In the midst of this powerful account of God’s judgment against Egypt, we also find one of the most powerful illustrations of salvation and pictures of Jesus as Redeemer contained in the Old Testament.

“This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.”

Exodus 11:4

The judgment would be swift and severe. And there was only one way to avoid it.

Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household… The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect…

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

Exodus 12:3,5,21-23

God didn’t tell them to try really hard to be good in order to avoid being wiped out. There weren’t long lists of rules they should follow, there was no character test. If they were to be spared, the lamb had to die in their place. They had to trust God enough to obey His command, slaughter an innocent lamb, and have their homes marked with the blood. Surely the firstborn sons were especially motivated to obey the command of God – and as he saw his father marking that doorframe with the blood of another, the message was clear: the lamb died, and now I will live.

One of my professors in college was an expert in ancient cultures. He took us on the best “field trip” of my life which included stops at a museum in Philadelphia and also at the MET in New York. As we walked through a hall of Egyptian artifacts, he pointed out to us the stone doorframes from Egypt lining the hall, each engraved all around the sides and top of the doorframe with hieroglyphs. He stopped and read the hieroglyphs to us – pointing out that these engravings were claiming allegiance to and calling for protection from various members of the vast pantheon of Egyptian gods.

The night of Passover suddenly became even more profound to me. As followers of the LORD dipped the hyssop branches into the blood of the lamb and wiped it on the doorframes of their homes – they were claiming allegiance to and trusting in protection from only one God: the one true God. Anything they had trusted in in the past would be covered up – only their faith in Yahweh was what mattered.

Fast forward thousands of years, and we find Jesus described in the New Testament as the Passover Lamb:

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1:29

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

1 Corinthians 5:7

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

Revelation 5:6

Jesus is the Lamb of God. We all deserve to die because we are all sinners. But this spotless, perfect Lamb was sacrificed in our place. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor and spare us from the punishment we deserve. We must simply trust His Word and place our faith in Jesus as our Passover Lamb. Our hearts must be marked with His blood. Just as the Israelites would have covered up any engravings already in place on their doorframes – we must trust in Him alone for our salvation.

Because the Lamb died, I now will live.

If you are enjoying this series, would you consider sharing it with a friend? Want to make sure you don’t miss a post in our One Summer, One Story series? Click here to receive these posts directly to your email inbox each day. Each post will also be indexed here for future reference, and so you can easily share the series with others.