The Easter Story

Between the lines: explaining Easter's message to children

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 10:45am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 10:45am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

To me, Easter is all about children's games, arts and crafts. This year's activities included making Easter bonnets, egg decorating, and countless egg hunts. My children, on the other hand, are fixated with the Crucifixion. They chat about Jesus dying on the cross, which leads them to sing in unison a song with an upbeat tempo about the Crucifixion. Next thing I know, I overhear them continue with other dead people.

Little sister: "A cross means heaven. Yeye [Grandpa] is in heaven, so Yeye died on the cross."

Big sister: "No, Yeye died in the hospital."

Little sister: "Oh."

This sobering talk makes the overflowing bag full of colourful giant chocolate eggs and bunnies that I have stockpiled in the closet seem somehow sinful and indecent.

Children are fascinated with the Crucifixion because they only contemplate Jesus the man, rather than Jesus the Messiah. Thus they wonder about the physical pain of being nailed to a cross and they try to find answers to why people were so mean to Jesus.

For child-friendly depictions of the gruesome Crucifixion, there are two wonderful books, both titled The Easter Story.

Gennady Spirin's The Easter Story elegantly portrays the events leading up to and following the Crucifixion. Spirin's dignified illustrations are in obvious contrast to Easter picture books about bunnies and eggs.

Brian Wildsmith is an award-winning illustrator whose version of The Easter Story uses vivid metallic colours. The story is adapted for young children, and is further simplified by telling the tale from the perspective of the donkey that carries Jesus through the streets on Palm Sunday.

Wildsmith is one of England's best known children's illustrators. A Christmas Story is a good companion book to The Easter Story. And his new Illustrated Bible Stories will be published later this month.

Ali Thompson, editor of a Sunday school periodical, used an innovative way to explain to kids the significance of Jesus's sacrifice. She asked her children to write on sticky notes things that they have done wrong, and then to stick the notes on themselves. Each time the children placed a sticky note on themselves, Thompson quickly took that sticky note and stuck it on her own body. In this way, she was able to demonstrate how Jesus took on sins.

For a secular celebration of Easter, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is a classic story by DuBose Heyward and illustrated by Marjorie Flack. While the overconfident male rabbits expect one of their own to be named Easter Bunny, wise Grandfather Bunny grants the honour to a kind-hearted country rabbit who has grown up to be a hard-working and humble mother of almost two dozen bunnies. I was astonished to learn that this story which encourages girls to grow up and follow their dreams was first published in 1939.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them. Visit bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Beyond a crucifixion fixation: explaining Easter's message to children

My Daughter Loves Jesus - Bible Stories, Todd Burpo's Heaven is For Real

Between the lines

Sunday, 23 December, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

In the summer, I bought my elder daughter a chic pair of silver gladiator-styled sandals. When I showed them to her, she exclaimed, "Oh I looove them!" As visions of a budding fashionista danced in my head, she said, "I love them because Jesus has sandals just like these!"

My daughter loves Jesus. Her exposure comes from her kindergarten, which teaches Christian values. I find this amusing because I hold Buddhist beliefs, so I never expected my daughter to embrace Jesus in the way that she has, and especially at such a young age.

I never really thought about my own connection to Christianity until I realised that I know many of the Bible stories and songs my daughter is learning at school. That's because I grew up attending Sunday school.

My immigrant parents had no second thoughts about my brother and me attending Sunday school even though our family was not Christian. Vancouver is ethnically diverse today, but in my primary school years there were only four Chinese children in our student body. Sending us to church was a part of my parents' efforts to assimilate in their new community. Our family participated in Halloween trick-or-treating, Canada Day backyard barbeques and such, so joining Sunday school seemed a natural extension of these neighbourly activities. As a result, what I got out of Sunday school was the comfort of belonging rather than any connection with God.

Despite my own feeling about Christianity, I'm proud that my daughter has developed an interest in something that was not initiated or influenced by me. (Of course, I'm also proud when she has interests in things that are heavily influenced by me.)

The Jesus Storybook BibleTo encourage both of us to explore Christianity further, I have been reading bible stories to my daughter from The Jesus Storybook Biblewritten by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. Published by evangelical publisher Zondervan, this award-winning book also comes in a large format keepsake edition. My daughter's favourite story is the birth of Jesus. She loves to revisit this story in the different storybook editions, including The Christmas Story. Written by Jane Werner Watson and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, this is a classic edition first published over 40 years ago. The artwork is beautiful and the story of Jesus's birth is retold to a younger audience while staying true to the bible.

Someone at my daughter's school gave me a copy of Todd Burpo's Heaven is for Real. It is an honest and inspiring account of a near-death experience by the author's son, Colton. Colton told his parents that, during his emergency appendectomy, he visited heaven and met long-departed family members. What is astonishing is that his recollections are so vivid and his descriptions so detailed. For non-believers, it is food for thought. For believers, Colton's account is an affirmation of what awaits them.

Heaven is for Real for Kids is a new edition of the original bestseller that has been adapted for children. I haven't shared it with my daughter yet because I foresee an onslaught of metaphysical questions and I want to wrap my head around how I might answer them. In the meantime, I'm busy with her day-to-day questions like why God doesn't need a raincoat when it's raining.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong