The ‘exercise ball’s’ been rolled away

Tonight was Lily's turn for 'Super Family Bible Night', and she was super excited. She been planning for awhile – this was her 'most favourite' story and she couldn't wait to do it. The story required a grave, a stone, grave clothes, swords, a cross and angel, mean people and friends. Can you guess what story she chose – yep – Jesus' death and resurrection!

Tonight was a bit cooler so we stayed indoors – and headed for the kids bedroom, we created a grave with the kids bunk beds with a sheet and a large blue exercise ball to create the grave, an old sheet to become the grave clothes, we found some of dads wood and string to create a cross and of course fairy wings for the angel – however we had a dilemma – 'no sword'  (I know I can't believe it either) – what were we going to do?? Thankfully Lily had an idea – Barbie dolls!! I have no idea how Barbie dolls could also be a substitute as a sword. But it was Lily's night so I didn't bother questioning.

Lily had all the parts allocated for the night – she was (of course) Jesus, the rest of us swapped between friends, mean people, guards, angels and then friends again. We began with Jesus praying in the garden and his friends falling asleep and Jesus had to keep waking them up (Lily loved being able to wake us up over and over again). Then Judas arrived to betray Jesus. Toby was thrilled with the idea of being Judas until we told him that Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss (meaning that he had to give his little sister a kiss on the cheek) he was repulsed at the thought and didn't want to be Judas anymore, but after some coercion he reluctantly gave Jesus (Lily) a kiss. Jesus was then taken to the court to be judged and then crucified. Although I think Toby enjoyed the 'nailing Jesus to the cross' part a little too much. After Jesus (Lily) died (a quite dramatic death might I say) we wrapped Jesus up in the grave clothes (old sheet) and moved Jesus into the grave (bunk bed) and rolled the stone (exercise ball) into place. On the 3^rd day and 'angel of the Lord' appeared (aka Adam) and informed the friends that Jesus was no longer dead but was alive – the friends were thrilled to see Jesus again.

Lily loved being able to lead this week, she especially loved being able to play the part of Jesus – it was really interesting to see how excited she was. She even told me this morning that her favourite stories in the bible – 1 Jesus death & resurrection and 2 Jonah & the whale. Interestingly both of those were ones that she led in 'Super Family Bible Night', and it made me realise that she was really engaged in the nights but she was especially loved it when she was the one in charge. It made me realise how much my kids were learning and loving these nights.

 Summary – although I was a little concerned about how the re-enactment would go on the death of Jesus the kids did a really good job of it, and I think they actually began to understand the sacrifice a bit more. It was a big one to cover – and I think our little 5yo did a pretty good job of it. She even had a magnificent prayer time afterwards thanking God for the cross, for the bible and for her family – priceless (and a tear jerker). The only problem was that most of the night I had that song "The Stone's been rolled away" in my head but instead of stone – I kept thinking "the exercise ball been bounced away" – didn't have the same ring to it.