Forty days and nights of rain beating down on that noisy smelly ark.
Forty years wandering in the wilderness between slavery in Egypt and freedom in the Promised Land.
Forty days Moses spent on the mountain with God.
The spies inspected the new land for forty days before bringing out fruit and a mixed report.
Elijah walked and fasted for forty days to Mount Horeb.
For forty days Jesus fasted in the desert and endured the temptations of Satan before any preaching or healing began.
Forty is the number of preparation.
Before a goodbye to the old and the arrival of the new. Forty.
For forty days we prepare for Easter – a farewell to sin and separation and death and the beginning of forgiveness, reunion, life full and forever.
Together. Around the kitchen table with Jesus at the center. After vitamins and teeth brushing. Before prayers and lights out.
Thanks to Ann and her entrepreneurial boy Caleb – bright and generous beyond his years – our family prepares for Easter using his Cradle To Cross Wreath set. (We also use this for Advent. Leave your email address here to get one.)
Every night we move the lit candle and the wooden Jesus figure one step closer to the center of the spiral, one step closer to the empty tomb. And we read a chapter – one short story – from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. (Used from as low as $11.06 here.)
Every story points forward in history to the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus in a way that kids can understand, and with artwork my kids ooh and ahh at…and copy.
Last night the preparation began. Day one was all about creation. How God called everything “good” and it was. How he was like a new dad when he saw Adam and Eve for the first time. And how God the Father would always love them – would always love us.
He was prepared to love – no matter the price.
How does your family prepare together during Lent?
Jennifer says:
I love this post. Thank you for sharing. I usually think of Lent as a personal thing, but I love the idea of including the entire family. I just wish the Advent/Lent wreath you posted about was still available!!
Jill Foley says:
Is there a waiting list for it? I was on the waiting list for quite a while and then one day, I got the email saying it was available. It’s worth the wait!
Jennifer says:
Thanks!!
Jill Foley says:
We’ve got the wreath, too, and it will be our first year using it. I think I’ll pull out our copy of the Jesus Storybook Bible and use it as you suggest.
Thanks for the idea!
Ann [email protected] Experience says:
Got 9 copies (one for each of us and my mama) of that Jesus Storybook Bible all stacked here in another language ready to take on our missions trip, for children at the orphanage.
Beginning Lent with you —
Wreath lit on the table.
(And Caleb’s wreath — he’s finishing up a few right now, and folks can leave their email address with him here if they’d like to put their name in for a wreath: http://adventtolenttoascensionwreath.blogspot.com )
Praying with you and yours through these 40 Days…
Jennifer says:
Thank you!! I will send an e-mail right now! We would love to have an Advent/Lent wreath for our family!
Jill Foley says:
We are taking several Spanish copies with us when we go to a Mexican orphanage later this year : )
Kris says:
I’ve just added my name to the email to wait for a wreath. I love the Lenten season and am thankful for ways to help include and instruct my children in the remembering and reflection during this time. Praying for you and yours, Shaun.
Sandy says:
My youngest is gobbling up the Jesus Storybook bible. Yesterday she sat next to me, before bedtime, reading the stories aloud to me. I love listening to her read ๐
My husband and I are listening to the audiobook version of ‘The Little Way of Lent: Meditations in the Spirit of St. Therese of Lisieux’. I’m enjoying talking and sharing together. Lent is a good time to focus, to take stock.
Kit says:
Awesome! I grew up in a church that followed the traditional church calendar well and I treasure those memories of being more aware through such traditions. The church we attend now is a great church but doesn’t do much in the way of this, so we have been wanting to incorporate it as a family instead. We’ve been putting it off, either because the kids were small or we just weren’t sure what to do. But there are some great ideas available like this, and our kids are plenty old enough to benefit from building some traditions now. Thanks for sharing this!
jdukeslee says:
We have the wreath, too. It is beautiful.
We don’t have the Bible, not in English anyway. We did buy several copies in Creole and delivered them to some of young friends in Haiti last month. I wish I could explain the look on the children’s faces — and especially on the faces of their mothers — when we delivered the Bibles. It’s like we’d handed them something much more precious than gold.
Which, in fact, we had.
Cindy says:
They are beautiful.