Good Friday

The great thing about today is that we got to spend the latter half painting eggs, something my kids are really beginning to get serious about. The last few years, we've evolved from your simplistic, traditional dunk-em-and-leave-em style coloring, to the now more refined and polished, brushed "art" of hand painting the incredible, edible...
:)
Interesting note, my father-in-law called today with a good question that sparked a little research on my end.
'Who says when Easter happens? Last year it was March, this year April. Who picks the date, and why?'
It was actually the Roman emperor Constantine, in 325 A.D., who picked the date, using the calendars of their era, which was largely based on astronomy. Today, we observe Easter on or after the first full moon of Spring soley for that reason. Easter eggs actually derive from ancient symbols of fertility, and the Easter Bunny is said to have evolved from the pagan goddess of spring, Eoster (hence the name). Her bird, according to the lore, ticked her off enough one day that she decided to turn him into a rabbit, and yet, the formerly feathered pet could still lay eggs.
Odd?
Yep. No question about it. We are just one very silly little race... on acid it would seem!
Oh well.
To me and my kids, it's just a chance to talk about Jesus and what he did for us on the cross, that He died, and 3 days later, was resurrected. And He didn't do it according to legend, it's right there in the history books. They never found His body or proved a conspiracy theory. Nope. The stone, which would have weighed about as much as a car, was rolled away, and the guards, who would have had to pay with their lives for not doing their duty or falling asleep on the job, simply had no evidence.
Don't we all know that the higher-ups of the day would have loved to reveal the apostles as frauds? To taunt them in the streets and string them up. And yet they couldn't. For years, these students of the Teacher proclaimed the news and the story of salvation. And when it came down to life or death, to give up their little fairy-tale, they stood up for what they'd known in their hearts to be the truth. Not one changed his story. Not a word. They chose instead to die. Would you die for something that wasn't real?

There's no crazy spells or legend with Jesus. Just the price He paid, and the price thousands have paid for believing.
The eggs and paint, the full moon of Spring and the "arts" of Easter, well that's all just the glue that keeps old traditions alive, like Evergreen trees and Candy Canes on Christmas and candy hearts and Cupids for Valentines.

It's the time we get to spend with them, together, that really matters. Precious little time to teach them about what is real Truth, and what is simply the stuff of fairy tales.