Holy Week Fun!

Holy Week is here!  Palm Sunday marked a day of celebration as Jesus entered Jerusalem while the people praised him and shouted Hosanna (literally "save us...please").  In this moment the people recognized Jesus as the one God had sent to save them, but over the course of the following week everything would change.  Those people who had heralded Jesus as the coming King would soon cry out that Christ be crucified.

Holy Week is a time where we move from great joy to great sadness and to joy again.  Palm Sunday is a day of joy and celebration, but then we enter into the betrayal, arrest and death of Christ on Good Friday.  Yet, as the Psalmist says, "Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5b)  On Easter Sunday we remember and celebrate the everlasting joy of the Resurrection!  Though darkness and death often seem all consuming, we worship a God who brings life from death, light from darkness, and hope from despair!  Holy Week is a time to remember our brokenness and be made new!

One way to remember and celebrate Easter this week and beyond is by spending time together to craft a symbol of new life that you can display.  One of my favorite ways to do this is by taking advantage of one of the symbols of death and resurrection we see in God's creation.  Flowers live a cycle of life that includes death and resurrection.  They die during the winter months and reappear with the warmth of Spring.  The life of the flower is a journey...a journey of dying and a journey of new life.  This makes the flower an amazing symbol that can remind us of the message of Easter throughout the year.

You will need:
-A Terracotta/Clay Pot for each member of your family (you can find these in all sizes for as little as $1 at stores like Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart and Dollar Tree)
-Paint (Acrylic paints work great, but if you are working with young kids try poster paint or even paint pens)
-Paintbrushes of various sizes and sponge shapes
-Water (to clean your brush)
-Other Possibilities
     +Use decorative items such as foam stickers, flowers, ribbons, buttons, mosaic tiles, etc. with mosaic glue/strong craft glue
     +Decoupage pictures of family or from pictures from magazines on your pot

 

After you have gathered your supplies, get busy decorating!  If your child is painting their pot, encourage them to draw images that remind them of Jesus and Easter. These could be things like butterflies, crosses, hearts, doves, lambs, etc.  Older kids may enjoy the challenge of finding symbols of faith in magazines and cutting these out to decoupage to their pot.  

**Note: I would encourage every member of your family to create their own pot.  Often adults gather the supplies and let kids do the activity.  However, creativity is one of God's great gifts to us and it is important that adults reconnect with our creative and child like side.  Help show your kids that there are a variety of ways to worship God and that you believe creativity is important!

Once your pots have dried, get some soil and plant your flowers.  You may want to plant flowers that are already blooming or you may want to plants seeds and enjoy the anticipation of their growth.  If you were to do this activity at the beginning of Lent, planting seeds would be a wonderful option because they would be ready to bloom by Easter!  

Display your pots somewhere they can be seen and make it a point to talk about Easter with your family when you admire them!

Happy Crafting!