As Christians, we know the true reason for the Easter celebration, yet that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy the other aspects of Easter as well. Here’s how you can put Jesus back into your Easter celebration.
We all grew up with the Easter bunny, Easter baskets and egg decorating as part of our Easter celebration. These traditions can be fun and are some of the most exciting aspects of Easter for the kids.
As Christians, we understand that Easter is really about the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and though it’s fun to do Easter baskets and paint eggs, we should be finding ways to weave in the true message into all of these traditions.
I started trying to make up a list of ways that we can incorporate the resurrection into other Easter celebrations so that as I embark on this new journey of starting a family, I can be ready to bring the gospel in a fun and exciting way!
Here are 7 ways you can put Jesus back into your Easter celebration that will not only help you share the gospel with your family but will help bring you to a greater heart of worship during the Easter season!
7 Ways To Put Jesus Back Into Your Easter Celebration
1. Resurrection Story The Night Before Easter
This is a cool idea that came to me when I was putting together this list. When we celebrate Christmas we also celebrate the eve of Christmas. Many people read stories that night before and though some of those stories are secular ones, we can still tell the story of the resurrection.
They way you do this is up to you, the resurrection account is found in all four of the gospels so you can read them all and put together your own rendition or read it straight from one of the gospels.
My personal choice would probably be to just read Luke 24. The entire chapter is about the resurrection until his ascension, so it’s a great choice.
2. Go To Church On Easter Sunday
This one may sound like a no-brainer but I felt like if I left it off the list, I would be doing an injustice to some who might not feel the need to go to church. It seems every day more and more people feel the can have a great relationship with Jesus and not be plugged into a local church.
Maybe you are reading this article right now and you either do not go to church currently or you haven’t been in a while. Easter is the perfect time to come back or to check out a church for the first time!
For those of you who do attend church regularly, this Sunday should be no different! Yes, it’s a holiday but it is also a holiday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! There is no better way to start this day off than to start by going to church and worshiping with your brothers and sisters!
3. Invite Friends and Family
Every one of us has someone we know on a personal level who does not come to church. Most of us even have close family who does not attend.
It can be hard to bring up coming to church to people who we know are adverse to the idea. Easter is a perfect time to ask someone who might not otherwise come.
Most people who wouldn’t consider coming to church most Sunday’s may be open to the idea of coming just because it is Easter. Maybe say something like, “Hey I don’t know if you have any plans for Easter Sunday, but my family and I are going to start the day off by going to church and we would love to have you join us if you are interested!”
Honestly, statistics show that most people don’t ever go to church because no one has ever asked them! So Easter is less of an excuse for someone to finally decide to go and more of an excuse for you to finally decided to ask!
4. Paint Christian Themed Eggs
Everyone loves painting eggs for Easter especially kids, fewer people like eating the eggs afterward but that’s beyond the point. We should be bringing Christ into this activity as well.
There are a lot of different products out there nowadays that lets you paint really cool and wacky designs onto your Easter eggs and these products can make it a ton of fun. But we should also find a way to bring the focus back to the true meaning of Easter.
What I would recommend doing is have a blast painting the eggs any way you want and as crazy as you want, but have each person save one egg for the end. When you have painted the rest take a moment to pray together as a family thanking God for sending His son to die for our sins and rise again to conquer death and give us an opportunity to spend eternity with Him!
Then challenge each member of your family to take their last egg and paint it with that prayer in mind, painting that egg with a cross and any colors they want. You can call it the Jesus egg! Whatever you decide to call it just remember we need to share the gospel with our kids, but it doesn’t have to be boring it can be fun and we can include Jesus in everything we do!
5. Easter Egg Hunt
We have to talk about the egg hunt! It’s one of the most exciting parts! Some people hide the eggs they painted and some people hide separate plastic ones. Whatever tradition you have, this is another excellent time to incorporate Jesus!
Start off the egg hunt with by reminding your kids that just as they are going to seek after the eggs, Jesus seeks after his sheep. You can even read a passage of scripture to tie this together, I would recommend Luke 19:10 because its just one verse, so it is something you can even memorize and encourage your kids to memorize as you share it with them each Easter!
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10
6. Christian Easter Baskets
What everyone puts in their Easter baskets I’m sure varies greatly, but this is something that everyone could start adding to their baskets.
When I was a kid we used to get candy and a few small gifts in our Easter baskets. I know some of you are thinking “gifts!? What is this Christmas?”
But stick with me for just one second, I do feel like gifts are not only appropriate but even possibly more appropriate than Christmas gifts.
See, the real gift of God wasn’t just His son into the world but giving His one and only son to die on the cross for us and not only did His son die, but He rose from the grave! That’s worth celebrating!
The one gift I plan to do for my kids Easter baskets each year is a new Bible. I want to start a tradition of giving them one each year. So during the times when they are walking closely with the Lord and writing so much in there bibles that they desperately need a new one(I can only pray right ha) or even more importantly for those times when they are going astray, that yearly Easter Bible can be a reminder that the Lord is still there and seeking after them!
7. Scripture Eggs
This is one of my favorite ideas because it seems like it would be a lot of fun and a really unique and powerful thing you could do with your family for Easter.
Get a bag of plastic eggs and sit down with your family and take little pieces of paper and pick out your favorite Easter and non-Easter scriptures and write them down and put them into the plastic eggs.
Then go for a walk with your family and bring a bag with your scripture eggs along. As you walk look for good spots and leave the eggs for unsuspecting people to find.
After you have placed your scripture eggs, take time to pray with your family that God directs the people who need those scriptures the most to find them! This would be a really fun activity and it could change people’s lives! It would be really cool if the same person found all of them!
These are just a few ideas I had for ways to bring Jesus back into the Easter celebration. I know there are some people who probably do some of these or maybe even do cooler more creative activities.
If that person is you let us know by leaving a comment below. We would love to hear what your favorite Easter tradition is! Either way, my prayer is that this Easter we all find ways to bring Jesus back into the celebration! Happy Easter!