So I went to Walmart today.  Gosh its been forever really since I’ve gone, maybe a year, more…  It’s only 20 minutes away and only 1 of 3 Walmarts in the whole state of Vermont.  It is almost always busy and for me overwhelming, so I do my best to avoid it.  We were in need of a travel high chair for ~O though and I knew they had them there.

I had 3 things on my list, the travel high chair, lined dish gloves, and a pack of women’s ankle socks.  I had ~O in the Mobywrap and ~R held on to the shopping cart as we walked in.  I hardly ever shop anywhere except the supermarket, so I kind of felt like a kid in a candy store enticed by the low prices and the shear wealth of variety of consumer goods.  I found myself thinking; “Oh we could use that, and oh wouldn’t that be nice!”  Thankfully just after finding our last item ~R had to use the potty.  The spell was broken.  After leaving the bathroom we made a beeline for the register and bought our things.  I made it out with only 1 item that wasn’t on the list – a pack of foam letter/numbers for the bath.

During the car ride home it really struck me how enticing consumerism, just plain old buying new stuff, is.  How it fills a hole within.  I felt thankful that in my present life shopping doesn’t really fit in, even if it isn’t by choice, but necessity.

And somehow that brought my tangled thoughts to Easter and how it also is about the filling of that hole.  As a kid Easter was nearly all about the “stuff”, a fluffy bunny, candy, hunting for strategically placed chocolate eggs.  They left me with fun warm feelings that I want my boys to experience too, but over the last few years, I’ve been on a search for a way to spotlight the main point of our Easter Celebration.

I’ve been looking for something similar to how our Jesse Tree focuses our family on Christ at Christmas.

I think I’ve found it, it’s a very hands on and kid friendly re-creation of the last days of Jesus:

I have to thank Laura at House of Joyful Noise for posting this idea on her blog.  She started it with her children at the beginning of Lent, but I wasn’t quite ready then.  A few days ago I mustered up some ambition and dug into it with the boys (literally).  I found a flower pot and serving dish from the stored items in our basement and my 5 1/2 year old son ~C, found a rock that was just right for the entrance of the tomb.

We had a bit of a false start when I sent the oldest 4 boys out in the yard to gather the rest of the materials.  Somehow a brawl ensued between them, not quite the cooperation I was hoping for.  After all that was sorted out I made sure to go outside with them and we all pitched in finding and digging up dirt and sod.  It was a true team effort.  They were so excited when we got the tomb together with its grass/sod roof and the next day fashioned crosses out of our Palm Sunday palms.   They thought we should make a Jesus for the tomb by printing out an image of Jesus and pasting it to some cardboard so we can place Him (covered in cloth) in the tomb on Good Friday and then close the tomb with the stone, then on Easter the rock will be moved aside and Jesus will be gone leaving only the cloth folded neatly inside.

My oldest ~V talked about possibly having the risen Jesus “appear” around the house for the 40 days after Easter, when he appeared to many before finally ascending into heaven.  I kind of LOVE that idea.  It’s like Elf on the Shelf, but only better (and definitely NOT an every day thing, he’ll appear somewhere maybe once a week or something).

So excited for this way to bring Jesus that much closer to the boys and our family.   Jesus came here to fill the holes in our hearts that sale prices at Walmart, candy, and bunnies just can’t do.

~Lisa