2 Simple supplies are all you need for this hands-on object lesson about the true meaning of Easter. The video at the end of the post is of our granddaughters, Peyton and Kaycee, as they go through the Salvation Eggs activity and their reaction to sin and God’s forgiveness is raw and heartwarming.
Write Sins On the Boiled Egg
Put one hardboiled egg in front of each grandchild and ask: What do you notice? What does it look and feel like? (hard and white) (Alternative: Start with a beautifully dyed Easter eggs.)
Explain that they will use a black Sharpie to fill the outside of their shell with sins. Sin is the stuff we do, say, or think that are against what it says in the Bible. And when we sin it makes God unhappy.
ASK: What are some things we do, say, or think that might make God unhappy?
Write sins all over the shell – every which-way until they overlap. If your grandchildren are old enough to write the words – or even pretend to write the words – let them do so. If they get stuck, some ideas to get them thinking are listed below.
Here are the sin’s Peyton & Kaycee wrote on their eggs:
- Stealing
- Making fun of people
- Being rude
- Not sharing
- Lying
- Watching shows I’m not supposed to
- Refusing to forgiving someone
- Being impatient
- Complaining
- Being jealous
- Being mean
- Not obeying my parents
- Not following rules at school
- Leaving people out
- Saying bad words
- Being sneaky
- Throwing a fit
- Talking back to my parents
- Cheating
- Loving my toys more than God
- Being mad that I don’t have a certain toy
Once the egg is black with sin, ASK: What does it look and feel like now? (still hard, but now it’s black and gross)
SAY: This is just what sin does to our hearts. It makes they hard and really gross. But I have some good news!
Time to Peel!
Begin peeling the eggs as you tell a simple version of the Easter story:
- Jesus is God’s son.
- He was sent to earth as a baby.
- He grew up learning about the Bible and telling others about God.
- And he never sinned!
- There were people who hated him so much that they called him names, beat him, nailed him to a cross, and watched him die.
- But Jesus is God’s Son so he didn’t stay dead!
- After 3 days, Jesus came back to life and now he lives in Heaven as our King.
- When we tell Jesus that we believe that he died to forgive our sins, and that we’re sorry, he is so excited to forgives us.
- When that happens, he peels away the hard, messy stuff in our hearts – just like we are taking away the shell from this egg – and makes our hearts as white as snow!
Hold up the peeled egg(s) and ASK: How does the egg look and feel now? (soft, white, and clean)
So, what does it all mean?
The Bible says, (paraphrase) “If we say we’re sorry for our sins, he forgives us and to cleans us from every one.” 1 John 1:9
Because God loves us so much, we want to do, say, and think things that make him happy. But sometimes, we still make bad decisions. When that happens, we can tell Jesus that we are sorry and ask him for forgiving us.
He forgives us every time!
Easter reminds us that Jesus came to earth, died, and came back to life to wash our sins away.
Peyton, Kaycee, and Salvation Eggs
KRISTI is the author of the Before books and coloring books for children and the Your Soul To Keep one-year prayer book for parents of adults. She writes to inspire parents and grandparents to shine the joy of Jesus into the lives of their families and to laugh without fear of the future (Proverbs 31:25). She and her husband Tim live in Iowa where they love doing life with their sons and daughters-in-law, six grandbabies, and two very spoiled dogs.