Jesus' Big Surprise

This is the story of Easter, with very little emphasis on the death of Jesus.

Each gospel has a different version of the Easter story. This is the one where Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” look for Jesus, but he isn’t there.

I may redo the video on this. In the middle of “God Makes the World,” I gave up on videos because the stop motion was so time-consuming. It’s been years since I put out a video, and I decided imperfect was better than nothing. I animated this one differently, and I don’t like the motion as well. I’m back to stop motion (a bit simplified), but I’m including this one for now.

Jesus & John

Here’s Jesus getting baptized by John (the Baptizer, or Baptist, if you prefer).

In this video, I describe baptism as like a bath for your feelings. I know the concept of baptism is complicated, and you can also split hairs over the difference between John’s baptism and early Christian baptism. But the text is pretty clear that people wanted to be baptized after they confessed their sins. Sounds like a bath to me, and an idea that even young kids can understand.

God Makes the World

Here’s the story of creation.

It doesn’t include the fall or Adam and Eve being kicked out of the Garden of Eden. It’s just Genesis 1. I hope you enjoy it.

Jesus & the Men from Far Away

You'll definitely notice something is missing in this story.

It's Herod. The king. The one who killed babies.

I almost didn't include the story of the wise men at all because I don't want to sanitize or change the meaning of Bible stories to make them appropriate for kids.

So why include this one?

The story of the Magi, as they're called in the gospel of Matthew, is more than just the story of Jesus being in danger, though that's definitely an important part.

But it's also the story of people outside of Palestine and the Jewish faith recognizing Jesus.

Some countries celebrate Epiphany on Jan. 6 more than they do Christmas. It's the day of gift-giving and the King Cake with its baby Jesus tucked inside.

At our house, Epiphany is a time for flags and prayers from other countries. We have a couple of wires over our dining room table, and I regularly change out what's there (because I bore easily).

Every Epiphany, we choose a different country, make food from there, and pray for the people there. This year it was Syria, which gave us a chance to talk to our kiddos about kids who don't have homes or safe places to be.

It's a small thing, but we'll keep it up to remind us that Jesus is for everyone.

Peace,

Teresa