Talk with Your Child Using Cooking

Yet another holiday is lurking just around the corner, so to speak. Easter will soon be upon us. It is a sort of somber day of celebration, and needless to say Christians will tell it differently than all the department stores. No Easter bunnies to speak of, or decorated eggs or even Easter baskets to wake up to. Of course, there is no harm in all of those things unless the true meaning of Easter (as is most often the case in American and other societies) is lost.

Lost to commercialism or to the simple fact that the resurrection of a man named Jesus is no longer important enough to tell to the next generation. Perhaps the state of our bad economy cannot be solely blamed on our government. Could it be that we have slowly discarded the God of our forefathers, set Him aside perhaps? Is it so hard to believe then that eventually the blessings might also fade? It's just a thought.

For those of us who still seek to recount the Easter story to the generations after us, it would be wise to involve our children at a young age? Now I am all about creativity, meeting our children's needs with tools that would make them stand up and take notice. Music being such a tool, since every child no doubt has an interest in one genre or another. That's why I wrote "How to Talk to Your Teenager Using Music."

In any case, fun and creative does not stop with using music. There is of course Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," to consider. Perhaps you could gather the family, invite your kids' friends for an evening at your home to watch this film. Mel, of course, has his own life issues but that does not mean that God did not have a wonderful purpose for this man (as He does for all of us). What we do with that call-out is entirely up to us.

Nonetheless, how would you communicate the Easter story to your children? For all you wonderful cooks, and even for those (like me) who stumble through the kitchen now and again, here's that creative moment you can use to communicate with your child through cooking.

The ingredients are few and you probably have them lying around the kitchen already. You will need . . .

1 Cup of whole pecans
1 tsp. of vinegar
3 egg whites
Pinch of salt
1 Cup of sugar
Zipper baggie
Wooden spoon
Scotch Tape
Bible

To set the mood, you might softly play the CD by Veggie Tales called "A Very Veggie Easter," unless it takes away from interacting with your children. Your teens may roll their eyes, but secretly all teens love Veggie Tales.

At any rate, most important to note here is that this should all be done the night before Easter. Let's begin, shall we?

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Don't wait, preheat before you do anything else. Then place the pecans in the zipper baggie and let your children beat them with the wooden spoon. Make sure the pecans break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. At this point you or one of your older kids could read John 19:1-3. For a change, try reading from "The Message." This is the very modern Bible version written by Eugene Peterson, released 2002. Your children will love it.

Then let each child smell the vinegar and put vinegar into mixing bowl. Tell them that when Jesus was thirsty as He hung on that cross, they gave him vinegar to drink. The passage to read now would be John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to the vinegar. Eggs represent life and Jesus gave His life so that we might have life (read from John 10:10-11).

Go ahead and sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand and let them taste it. Brush the rest of your salt into the bowl. This could represent our salty tears and bitterness of our sins as you read Luke 23:27.

Unfortunately for the children the ingredients so far are not very appetizing. Here we will begin to add the sugar. After all, the sweet part of this story is that Jesus died for one reason'"He loved. Each of your children, and every child that came before and after them, Jesus loved enough to die for. He thought that all were worth the pain He had to endure. He never gave up on anyone and continued the walk to Golgotha, the place of the skull. Share the scripture in Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat the ingredients with a mixer, on high speed, for at least 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity, in God's eyes, of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus (read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3).

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper-covered cookie sheet. Teach them that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid (Matthew 27:57-60).

Finally, put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven off. Yes, it is important that you turn the oven off. Proceed to give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. After reading together from Matthew 27:65-66), let everyone go to bed. Tell them that they may be sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight but remind them that Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed (John 16:20, 22).

Then on Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow. On the first Easter morning Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Finish off by reading Matthew 28:1-9).

It is an extraordinary story, one that needs to be told and retold to every generation. Perhaps you will know of another interesting way to convey this Biblical truth, the point being, communicate with your children. They are listening.