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There was a debate (that you can still watch) between Prof Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist Biologist and Prof John Lennox, the Christian Mathematician. Richard Dawkins started by summarising his greatest problem with Christianity (with a tone of total disdain), “[Lennox] believes that the Creator of the Universe, the God who devised the laws of physics, the laws of mathematics… billions of light years of space, billions of years of time… couldn’t think of a better way to rid the world of sin than to come to this little speck of cosmic dust to have himself tortured and executed... That’s the God that John Lennox believes in.”
John Lennox starts his answer by thanking him for accurately summarising at least part of what he believes.
That is incredible!
What Richard Dawkins thinks is the most ridiculous flaw in Christianity is what John Lennox holds as its greatest jewel. It will always be so. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the absolute heart of Christianity. What is hideously ugly to one is beautiful to another.
Christianity claims that the first Easter weekend is the centre of human history. The events of those three days from the first Good Friday up until Easter Day can transform the eternity of every human. There is a claim!
So this is the page of our Bibles to open at with our children. It is these events that we want our children to watch unfold before them.
We want our children to discover why the story of Jesus' death and resurrection is the most amazing story ever told.
We want them to join in the shouting as Jesus rides on a donkey into Jerusalem as the returning King.
We want them to listen as an innocent man is sentenced to the ultimate punishment.
We want their hearts to break as the King of the universe dies.
We want them to share the relief of knowing that Christ’s pain brings us into his family.
We want our children to stand at the mouth of the open tomb at dawn as the King rises again.
A friend told me that she remembers the moment when she first told her sons that Jesus had risen from the dead. They were two and three years old. They both looked as if they were about to walk out of the front door and look for Jesus. She could see their thoughts in their eyes, “He’s alive? So where is he now?”
That’s why we must not stop there. We want them to imagine standing on the hill outside Jerusalem as the disciples watch their best friend rise to rule in heaven. We know where he is. And we know where we’re going.
"Parenting is often the story of loving our children enough to muddle through when we don’t really know what we’re doing."
And if you are convinced that the Easter story is the perfect place to make a start, please don’t continue to have the nagging doubt that you won’t know what to do when you open the Bible with your children. When some of our friends were trialling the first draft of my new Lent family devotional, The Wonder of Easter we asked them for feedback. One told us, “We don't want to lose this precious routine that for so long we have yearned for. We didn't know how to go about doing it. We didn't have an impetus to do it. We didn't think we could do it. Now I think we can keep going but the children will certainly be missing all of your visual treats like fire, happyland figures, drawings, play dough and Lego. Thanks so much for giving us the opportunity to do this.”
Parenting is often the story of loving our children enough to muddle through when we don’t really know what we’re doing. We keep going, trying to work it out as we go along, because we love them. That is enough. You love your children. You love Jesus. So open the Bible with them, show them Jesus and see what happens. We’ve written this book to make those first steps a little easier. At least, that’s our prayer. You can let us know if we’ve managed it.
The Wonder of Easter is a flexible, easy-to-use Lent devotional that allows both adults and children to celebrate the limitless wonder of Easter. Walk through Luke’s Gospel and the Old Testament to discover why the story of Jesus' death and resurrection is the most amazing story ever told.
Ed Drew is the Director of Faith in Kids, resourcing children's ministry in the local church. Before that for twelve years he was the Children’s Worker at Dundonald Church, South West London. He’s married to Mary and they have three children. Previously Ed was an Engineer and he is still happiest building and fixing things.
