The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross Easter Calendar Sneak Preview

Easter is soon approaching and though it's going to look very different this year, it's still a brilliant time to impress the hope of the Easter message onto the hearts and minds of our children. This Easter, talk longer, delve deeper, and help children to discover the life-changing truth of the Easter story. One way that you could do this is with The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross Easter Calendar and family devotional. Why not take a look at the very first devotional that accompanies door one of the Easter calendar to get a feel for it? Parents, the sections in italics are a suggested set of words for you to use as you lead your family through the devotions. 

Let's pray

Lord God, please excite us about this picture of your good garden. Amen

Let's start

• Think of the best garden or park you’ve ever been to… What do you love about it?

Well, a long time ago, right here in this world, God planted a good garden. Today we’re going to think about four types of tree in that garden that help us understand why God’s good garden was the best garden there’s ever been!

Let's listen to God

As you hear them, count on your fingers the four different times trees are mentioned.

Genesis 2 v 8-9

Then the Lord God planted a garden in the East, in a place called Eden. He put the man he had formed in that garden. The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life. And he put there the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil.

Let's think...

… about the first two types of tree:

• The first people were called Adam and Eve. The trees gave them something they needed. What was it?
• How do we know that the trees looked lovely?
• What were the two unusual-sounding trees called?

In God’s good garden the tree that gave life meant there were no illnesses or accidents or death. There was nothing to make life bad and people sad.

And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was God’s tree. It showed that the garden belonged to a good God who was in charge of it all and ruled it all perfectly.

WOW! The Garden of Eden was a beautiful place, to live in forever, full of good food, ruled by a perfect God!

But that’s not all – there is one more thing that made Eden ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!

Let's listen to God again...

Genesis 3 v 8a

Then [Adam and Eve] heard the Lord God walking in the garden

• What does that sentence tell us about where God was?

Yup! Right there – in the good garden with the people he’d made. Those people could see God, and speak to God, and just enjoy being with God. It was wonderful to live with God!

We are not in that good garden, but we still enjoy the creation that God made. He created all the mountains and beaches and plants and fruits and vegetables and animals and creepy-crawlies. What are your favourites…? 

Let’s use this prayer to say thank you to God for those things now…Get ready to say your favourites when I leave a gap.

Let's pray... 

Lord God, thank you for making …………………… and ……………… and …………… You’re amazing! Amen.

Let's think a bit more...

Have a quick glance over Genesis 1. Again and again it says, ‘Then God said…’ as well as various things God does.

Now look for every time God is mentioned in Genesis 2. What difference do you notice?

If you know someone, you know their name. And the LORD, or Yahweh, is God’s name for himself – the name he told Moses to call him in the book of Exodus (3 v 13-14). The writer of Genesis is using the name for God—it shows he is a relationship-making, promise-making, promise-keeping God.  

What does this add to our understanding of how amazing it must have been to live in God’s good garden?

The 15-door Easter calendar works just like an advent calendar and means kids can count down to Easter Sunday. It comes with two weeks of Easter family devotions based on the passages used in The Garden, The Curtain and The Cross Storybook. Children aged 5-8 will learn why Jesus died and rose again, and why that's the best news ever. To find out more and order yours today, click here.