The Easter season is ripe with meaning. And according to Lisa Whisnant, a longtime member of Capshaw Baptist Church in Limestone Baptist Association, it doesn’t take much for families to adopt meaningful traditions that will last long after the PEEPS and chocolate bunnies have been devoured.
Although Whisnant has been compiling Easter ideas since her three children, Evan, Jared and Aubrey, were young, she didn’t think to share her ideas with others until 1996.
“At first, God planted it in my heart to find significant ways to celebrate Easter and point my children to Christ,” Whisnant said. “It was natural for me to start sharing these ideas with other families.”
In an effort to share what she gathered, Whisnant began teaching workshops best described as a thought-provoking mixture of edible spiritual lessons, simple decorating ideas and inspiring activities. All of which are bound by a single thread — Jesus. Many of her ideas such as the tomb cake (see sidebar for recipe) are original; others she gleaned from magazines, books and Web sites.
“For most of us, Easter means new white shoes, baby chicks and getting to eat the ears off the chocolate bunnies,” Whisnant added. “But what I suggest in my workshops is that you replace empty traditions that take just as much time to do and cost just as much money and replace them with something meaningful.”
Sherri Spivey, a member of the Church at Hampton Cove, Owens Cross Roads, in Madison Baptist Association, indicated that her family is trying to do just that. “Easter should be the biggest celebration of the year for Christians. It is our highest day,” said Spivey, a home educator and interior designer who has adapted many of Whisnant’s suggestions.
“In our family, we’ve always tried to make the time leading up to Easter a season of contemplation,” she said. “During the week before Easter, I’ll put things out like a loaf of bread to remind my son James of the Last Supper or a bag with 30 nickels in it to remind him of Judas’ betrayal.”
And Spivey points out, “You can find Christian symbolism almost anywhere you look. A simple striped ribbon tied on an Easter basket reminds us that by His stripes we are healed. Or look at the shape of an egg. Its circular shape suggests that it has no end and no beginning, like our eternal Father.”
BeBe Williams, also a member of Hampton Cove, said that she, like most people, always loved Easter yet had never thought that decorations or food had much to do with Christ’s resurrection.
After attending one of Whisnant’s workshops, however, she was so inspired that she convinced her 8-year-old granddaughter, Rebecca, to help her build a cross to display in the dining room.
They found two chunks of Styrofoam in the garage, cut them down to size, spray painted them with dark brown paint and used two dowels to fashion the pieces into a 4-foot cross. They draped a scrap of purple fabric over their makeshift cross and set it in the corner of the dining room — in the same spot where the Christmas tree stood a few months before.
Then the pair went outside and stripped the branches off an unruly hawthorn tree growing in the front yard. Ever so carefully, they began to twist the thorny branches into the shape of a crown.
With fingers still bleeding, they carried the crown into the house and lovingly set it on the cross.
“The thorns on the branches kept pricking our fingers when we were putting it together,” Rebecca said. “It showed me how much it must have hurt Jesus to have the crown pushed onto His head.”
Whisnant said the crown of hawthorn branches and table symbols such as the loaf of bread are effective faith builders because “we have become a visual society and children learn best by seeing.”
Lisa Clark, who home-schools her four children, agrees.
“If they can see it and touch it and play with it, then the concept stays with them,” said Clark, who is a member of Capshaw Baptist. She liked the notion of the plastic resurrection eggs you can find at many stores.
“But I thought there was a lot more in the Scriptures that I could add,” Clarke said.
To make a personalized set of resurrection eggs, she suggested reading through the account of Jesus’ death and resurrection and filling the eggs with objects that reflect what you see in Scripture.
“You could even change the contents year to year,” Clarke added. “The important thing is the eggs encourage discussion and help kids get a picture of what actually happened 2,000 years ago.”
Other activities include:
– Help children carve a cross out of a bar of white soap. Then allow them to get their hands really dirty. Have them wash their dirty hands with the cross-shaped soap. Lesson: Jesus washes away our sins.
– Make heart-shaped pancakes or cookies to remind children of the new commandment Jesus gave at the Last Supper. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).
– Focus on the Lamb. Replace the bunnies and chicks in a child’s Easter basket with stuffed lambs and cross-shaped candies. Point out the similarities between the lamb and Jesus.
Whisnant suggests families try a few activities each year and choose the ones that work best or have the most impact.
For more information about Whisnant’s workshops, e-mail her at celebratingchrist@yahoo.com.
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Empty Tomb Cake
Ingredients:
1 box of pound cake mix
1 can of white frosting
Green food coloring
1 bag of coconut
10 chocolate sandwich cookies
1 York peppermint patty
Directions: Butter and flour a tube pan such as an angel food cake or bundt cake pan. Mix and bake the cake according to the directions on the box. Remove from pan and cool completely. When cooled, cut the cake into two pieces, allowing one side to be larger than the other. Set the pieces on their side (cut side down) with the larger piece in front of the smaller piece to create the tomb.
Decorate: Add a few drops of green food coloring to the white frosting and mix. Frost the front and sides of the cake. Place coconut in a large plastic bag. Add a few drops of green food coloring, seal and shake. Cover the top and side of the cake with the green coconut so it looks like a grassy hill. Write Matthew 28:6 on a strip of fabric or cloth gauze and roll it up. Place it inside the cake and put the peppermint patty in front of the hole in the cake. Crush the sandwich cookies in a plastic bag, and use them to make a “dirt” path leading to the entrance of the tomb. Optional: Write “He is Risen” across the front of the tomb cake. Add three chocolate crosses to the top of the cake.
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