By Fred Pry for THRIVE NEWS
When people think about giving gifts for a holiday, most think of Christmas. But what about Easter? Christmas may be the time we exchange gifts and even consider God giving the gift of His Son, Jesus, but Easter is so much more than bunnies, egg hunts, and small gifts of candy. In fact, the best gift ever given for each of us came as a result of those critical events surrounding the first Easter.
To help children celebrate the true meaning of Easter this year, consider these three of the best Easter gifts God gave us and how you can share them with your kids.
1. The Easter gift of humility
The Thursday before Easter is when Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples and instituted the Lord’s Supper. It’s when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet (John 13) — the job only a servant would do. Later, in Gethsemane, He fervently prayed to the Father, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus modeled humility through His life and even in his death, and it’s what we need to practice ourselves as we come before God. This is why the first, best Easter gift God gave us is the gift of humility.
While humility usually doesn’t sound very appealing to children and, truthfully, most adults, without it, we’d be in big trouble. Philippians 2:3-8 describes how we should humble ourselves like Jesus, who lowered Himself as God to become a man, lived as a servant and willingly died on a cross. As you approach Easter, take time to read about these events starting in Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22 and discuss them with the kids in your life. One way to do this is with Resurrection eggs, where each plastic egg contains a symbol that represents a part of Jesus’ story, serving as a visual aid for the Gospel message.
