easter story stones
Have you seen those Resurrection Eggs that people do around Easter? It’s a collection of 12 plastic eggs, each one with a little trinket inside to help explain part of the Easter story. We’ve put together a set for the boys the last couple of years, but this year I wanted to do something different. Thus was created, Easter story stones!
I went through the Easter story and divided it into segments. For each part, I chose one or two symbols to help illustrate it and drew the symbols on rocks. Every day (starting 12 days before Easter), I’ll have the boys pick out the symbols for that part of the story, we’ll read the Scripture together and talk about it.
For the rocks, I went down to our local garden center (though I’m sure you could find some at the craft store or pretty much anywhere that has a garden section) and picked out smooth, flat rocks used for gardening or planters. I chose black because I wanted to use white ink for all the pictures, but the rocks come in other colors too. For the ink, I bought paint markers at the craft store, but honestly, they weren’t the best for this project. I’d like to get some Posca markers which would probably work better on non-porous surfaces. For the images, I just used Google to search for images that matched each symbol.
I thought I’d share the 12 days leading up to Easter! At the end of the post is a link to a pdf with all the days, the parts of the story, and the Scriptures that go along with them (in case you wanted to make a set of your own!)
Day 1 – Jesus washes the disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17)
Day 2 – The Last Supper / Communion (Matthew 26:26-29)
Day 3 – Jesus prays in the garden (Mark 14:32-42)
Day 4 – Jesus is arrested / Servant’s ear cut off (Matthew 26:47-56 & Luke 22:47-53)
Day 5 – Peter denies Jesus 3 times (Luke 22:31-34, 54-62)
Day 6 – Before the crucifixion (John 18:12-14, 19-24, 28-40 & John 19:1-15)
Day 7 – The Cross (Luke 23:26-49)
Day 8 – Jesus laid in the tomb (Mark 15:42-47)
Day 9 – Empty tomb (Luke 24:1-12)
For day 8 we’ll talk about Jesus being laid in the tomb and place the smaller rock over the “opening;” then we’ll remove it to illustrate the stone being rolled away for day 9.
Day 10 – Jesus appears to his disciples (even though the doors were locked where they were gathering, and then to Thomas, showing him his nail pierced hands) John 20:19-31
Day 11 – Jesus ascends (Acts 1:4-11)
Day 12 – Disciples receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-41)
Here are all the rocks together. I’m really happy with how they came out! And I do feel better about rocks than tiny trinkets that could get lost or even swallowed! I want to actually start twelve days before (and not including) Easter, and then take communion as a family on Easter Sunday.
If you’d like to make a set of your own, or just want to go through the parts of the Easter story each day leading up to Easter, here is a pdf for the different parts and Scripture that corresponds to them.
Easter is such an important part of our history, especially as those who love and follow Jesus! I’m excited about a fun way to help the boys remember and celebrate each part of it!