A few months ago I shared some of my favorite Christmas traditions including our family "Christmas Candles." Well, just in case the title didn't give it away, we also have Easter candles!
The overall idea is this: every year around Lent we pull out the official Easter candles (which are in truth just five votive candles!). Each night we light the candles and with each one recite a truth about Jesus. On Easter morning we wake up before the sun and head to a local park with Easter candles in tow. As the sun comes up we read the resurrection story and light our candles for the last time that year. Here's the (theologically-packed!) Easter list:
1. Jesus lived a perfect life.
2. Jesus died in my place.
3. Jesus washed my sins away.
4. Jesus is alive today!
5. Jesus is the Savior of the world.
As you can imagine, these simple statements can lead to some fairly significant conversations, even with a four and six year old! We talk about sin and the consequences of sin, what is means to be separated from God, what it means to have atonement, forgiveness, resurrection, new life, eternal life, salvation, and the list goes on. It's a fun tradition, reminds us of the significance of the season, and is a really great teaching tool for the kids (and the adults!).
Do you have any family or community traditions that communicate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus during this season?
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I really enjoyed that every Christmas in our neighborhood, everyone would contribute and put candles out on the side of the road. It was such a beautiful scene! The smell was just so amazing! Actually, I started to buy candles with some more frequency now after seeing those candles. I just love their smell!
I don't want to throw water on anything that makes people, women, feel good, but....
Traditions of men (which includes women, by the way), have a way of taking our minds off of the Lord rather than truly focusing on Him. Jesus doesn't want us to think of Him in sentimental or shallow terms. What is wrong with simply studying the scriptures in the Bible that show us how Jesus lived? That He died in our place? that He shed His blood to wash away our sins? That He is alive today, and is the Savior of the world? After all, it is the Word of God that increases our faith, and that cleanses our minds of our own false notions, our own understanding of God's Word. Scripture says that, "...God's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts...".
There is no scripture that advocates the lighting of candles or any other traditions of men which is always less than making every effort to know "...every word of God..." that we really need to feed our spirits. Perhaps, we should really be about memorizing as much scripture as possible, hiding it in our hearts and lighting our paths with that which is brighter than the brightest lights of man, candles or the sun.
The point of the tradition is not to replace Scripture reading (you'll notice that is actually part of the tradition) nor to make anyone "feel good" but to communicate the very truths about Jesus taught in the New Testament to my young children. I'm not sure I see what is sentimental and shallow about these five very important and biblical statements about Jesus. The candles are simply tools that help my kids remember, learn and begin to think theologically about what the Scriptures teach us about the death and resurrection of our Lord.
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