Easter: What We teach vs What They Learn

 

                               Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.  Psalm 34:11

Stella, my 4 year old granddaughter, has been taught that Easter is about Jesus rising from the grave.  She gets an Easter basket but no one has ever pretended there is an Easter Bunny who brought it.  She has made some interesting deductions on her own.  She and I had a conversation about Easter the other day. It went something like this:

Stella: It’s almost Easter so the Easter bunny stops at some houses. 

Me: (Ignoring the stops at houses remark). Well, you know that Easter is not about the Easter Bunny.

Stella: (Nodding her head decisively) Yes, it is.  (at this point her mother steps into the room).

Me: No honey, Easter is when we celebrate Jesus rising from the grave.

Stella: No, it is about the Easter bunny.  (Wonder where she gets that stubborn streak?)

Her Mom: Don’t you remember we talked about how the people killed Jesus on the cross and they put Him in a grave but three days later He wasn’t there?  He had risen from the dead.

Stella: Yes, I remember that, but it’s still about the Easter bunny because.. the book!

Me: What book? 

At this point in the conversation Stella got up and retrieved a book we had read together the day before.  The book bothered me a little then but I wasn’t sure why.  Now, I was hearing why from a four year old.

The book is a little children’s cardboard book called “What is Easter?” by Michelle Adams.  The point it makes is that even though what we see and hear about at Easter are the bunnies, eggs, jelly beans, chicks, and chocolate candy, they are not what Easter is all about.  She goes on to say, “It is about God’s Son, who God sent to die for everyone”…..  “Jesus our Savior rose again. Hooray! Hooray,! Hooray!

So, apparently Stella sees as much as she hears and what she proceeded to show me was that the words and the pictures were not lining up.  Even if it was saying the bunnies are not important there are 12 pages in the book and 7 of them have bunnies on them.  There are real bunnies pictured, several chocolate bunnies, a few stuffed bunnies (one in a child’s arms in church on Sunday morning), and even a bunny balloon being held by someone in the choir. 

Regardless of what we adults think the words are saying, the pictures clearly tell a four year old that Easter is all about the bunnies!  A book that not only seemed harmless but seemed to communicate a good message about Easter tells a different story in the pictures – and maybe not to every child – but it sure did to Stella. 

This is a difficult age in which to raise Christian children.  The book is teaching a kind of tolerance.  The message is that there is nothing wrong with bunnies, chicks, and Easter candy – but the most important thing about it is Jesus’ coming and dying for our sin so He could then rise and live so we might spend eternity with Him. 

Is that the message we want our kids to get? Well, yes…but, is it what the book really teaches?  I thought so but I can now see that books like this are not pointing the children who read them to Christ alone.  The worldly idea of Easter is at the front and back of the book.  The Easter bunny is represented with a bunny as many times that the words “God’s Son” or “Jesus”.  To a four year old that puts them on level ground.      

 

I think that books like this are meant to teach children that what the world does with Easter, i.e., egg hunts, Easter bunnies, and jelly beans, are all fine.  But, isn’t the truth that these are distracting them from the true message of the Lord?  Americans spend much more time on them than we do on the worship and study of the death and Resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus died on that cross to pay the debt that we owe for our sin.  He rose again to live and sits at the right hand of God interceding for His people.  He is not only keeping us out of Hell but daily blessing us in more ways than we can count…..And we’re teaching our children to be thankful for a basket full of candy bunnies?! 

Stella will still wear her pretty Easter dress, she will (no doubt) participate in an Easter egg hunt, and eat chocolate bunnies but I know that we need to be more intentional about  how we are teaching Biblical truth to her and her brother.  In our house this was a wakeup call to be careful about the books we choose.  In the training of children it is true that “there is a lot more caught than taught.”  What are our children, the future leaders of the church, learning from our example and teaching about the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?