The Tomb is Empty and Where is Jesus?

I saw a post about this project on Facebook about a month before Easter. I shared the photo, and lots of other people “liked” it. I decided I would make this for our Easter centerpiece. It looked easy and very eye-catching. So I got some soil at Walmart and grass seed and the clay pot and saucer.

Then I put them all together, building a mound of dirt over the clay pot and planting grass seed on it. Then I asked Fiona to find some sticks and build some crosses for it. She did a good job with her assignment. She also found lots of little rocks, much to my surprise, since everything is paved around here. I walked by our flower bed and happened to find a big rock just the right size for covering the entrance to our “tomb”.

It was fun watching our grass grow. Pretty soon it grew so tall we had to cut it!

I let Garrett have the privilege of mowing Golgotha.

Fiona had been telling me her idea of putting Jesus in the tomb and then taking him out on Easter morning. I looked for a Jesus figure as I did our Easter shopping, but sadly, I couldn’t find anything about Jesus among all of the Easter decorations and candy. So I asked her to make a paper doll of Jesus for our activity. She struggled with it for several hours. I kept asking how she was doing, and she said she couldn’t do it. She makes lots of things out of paper and she’s very artistic and creative, so I was surprised that she was having a hard time with this. When I went to bed, she still hadn’t made a figure of Jesus to put in the tomb.

I woke up early Easter morning and looked for a picture of Jesus on the computer that I could print out. I finally found one I liked and printed it out and took it downstairs. I thought I would surprise the kids when they got up. When I rolled away the stone to put my picture of Jesus in the tomb, this is what I found!

She surprised me instead! She had figured out how to make Him and she put Him in the tomb. I stood Him up in the entrance of the tomb to show that He had risen.

Then I put my picture of the triumphant Jesus standing over the top of the tomb.

The tomb is empty, praise be to God!

I hid the figure of Jesus in the living room, planning to have the kids go on a big hunt for Jesus. I thought I would have to give them lots of hints and tell them when they were hot and cold. Hiding Jesus was Fiona’s idea, too. I thought that was neat to go along with the disciples not knowing Him when they first saw Him after the Resurrection. I told them that a figure of Jesus was hidden somewhere in the living room, and I described how Fiona had drawn him. Kelsey walked straight over to the bookcase and lifted Him out of the Bible I had placed Him in with part of Him sticking out. So much for the BIG hunt! But they had fun, and I think they got a lot out of the activity.

Fiona really thought a lot about the story of the Resurrection and came up with a neat activity for us to do to commemorate the event. Garrett also enjoyed it a lot and acted out the whole story several times using our centerpiece. He did it for my parents while they were here. They were very impressed. It was a great activity to help them learn more about the Resurrection of Jesus.