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ON YOUR MARKS… GET SET… GO!!!
Little feet, carrying little legs, in a flurry of pastels sprint across the yard. The neighborhood kids are decked out in their Easter best, but swinging their Easter baskets like swords in the gladiator arena; checking under every piece of lawn furniture, around every tree, in the thick of every bush. There are eggs to be found. Eggs filled with candy.
It’s a weird way to celebrate the resurrection, for sure – but it’s a tradition and it’s fun. And as much as Jesus loves kids, I bet He’d be egging them on too… hehe. #Puns.
But the tradition of the hunt is getting watered down, y’all. What used to take meticulous planning and coordination has been reduced to “Let’s dump a bunch of eggs into the middle of the yard and let the kids battle it out.” This is just straight up lazy. It’s not an Easter egg HUNT if there is no hunting. Our kids deserve better from us.
Mock disappointment aside, I do think my kids deserve better from me at Easter time. We do the work around Advent, celebrating the birth of the Savior – but come Easter, it’s not so easy to talk about sin and death and violence and fear. Talking to young children about the most gruesome form of capital punishment ever devised (the cross) is a real challenge. Discussing sin and forgiveness isn’t easy with adults, let alone children.
But even though it is hard to talk about these things, Easter conversations might just be the most important conversations in our children’s lives. We’re talking eternal consequences here. If we fail to go the extra mile, we miss the most important part of being Christian parents. Our love for Christ – our responsibility to share His story and love with our children – far surpasses any trepidation we might feel.
Society gives us an easy out; we can talk up the Easter bunny and the candy and pretty dresses and pastel clip on ties. But if we skip out on sharing Jesus. The real Jesus. The Jesus who died on the cross and rose from the grave and gives us purpose and meaning in this life and all eternity … well we fail not just our children, but our Savior. And our kids deserve better from us.