Joy in Jesus' Return -- from a Kid's Point of View

This Good Friday I gave Desiree and Elijah a toy Jesus and a children's book about some of the miracles of Jesus. After we acted out some of the miracles, we acted out his death. Then we wrapped Jesus up in cloth (toilet paper), buried him in a "tomb" in our front yard and covered it with a rock. The plan was to check the tomb on Sunday and (spoiler) Jesus wouldn't be there!

But, a few hours later at bedtime here is the conversation Elijah (newly 4), Desiree (6) and I had.

Elijah: "Can we go get Jesus now?"

Me: "Remember Jesus was in the tomb for three days?"

Elijah: "But, I want to take Jesus to bed with me..."

Desiree: "You know that Jesus is always with us, right?"

Elijah: "But I want the toy Jesus."

Me: "You don't want to wait three days?"

Elijah: "It's time -- I counted -- 1, 2, 3!"

Me: "Oh... but three days is longer than just counting to three."

Elijah: "1, 2, 3 ... 4, 5... Let's go get Jesus!"

What could I do? I couldn't withhold Jesus from my son for the sake of an object lesson. So we went back outside in the dark and dug in the tomb. Thankfully I'd had the foresight to remove Jesus as soon as he was buried just in case something like this happened. There in the dirt was the "cloth", but no Jesus. Elijah said "Maybe we need to dig deeper?" All of a sudden Jesus appeared out of no where (as if from my pocket).

I don't know if Elijah completely understood the object lesson, but he sure was glad to get his Jesus toy back. And isn't joy in Jesus' return what Easter is all about?


~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~