Cultivated Lives: Preparing for Pentecost

After Jesus rose from the dead, He spent another 40 days here on earth. He talked with His disciples, opened up Scripture and explained why He had to come and why He had to die. Right before He ascended back into heaven, He told his disciples to wait in Jeruselem. They ended up waiting 10 more days for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

To introduce this to the boys, I used two wonderful resources:

This story Bible for kids is a gem because it really helps give the overall "big picture" of what the Bible is about. It all centers around Jesus - the Old Testament leading up to him and the New Testement telling about Him. This book does a fabulous job of doing just that. We enjoyed re-reading from the ascension to the birth of the church at Pentecost.

This book is wonderful. For those that are not familiar with Arch books, they are Bible stories set to rhyme that are very faithful to the text. They are a great way for kids to learn, especially when it comes to the less common Bible stories, such as this one. I loved how this one not only included the events from the Ascension to Pentecost, but also included Peter's preaching of the word and the subsequent birth of the church!

After reading this to the boys, we talked about birth and birthdays. I explained that Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit gave the disciples the power and ability to proclaim the good news of Jesus. And when they did, 3,000 were added to their number that day. That day, marks the birth of the church.

So we've decided to have a birthday party and celebrate this next Sunday since it is 50 days after Easter. Being little boys who love anything birthday related, they were practically bouncing off the walls. (In hindsight, I probably should have made this announcement in the morning instead of at bedtime.)

The next day we went to the dollar store to prepare.

For our Pentecost Party, we will be celebrating with candles and lots of red to remind us of the Holy Spirit who came in a gust of wind and FIRE!

The boys asked for little watering cans when we were at the dollar store, so I decided to get one for each one. As we remember the disciples waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit who would come in power to grow the church, so we wait for our little watering cans which will help grow our garden. (Have I mentioned recently that I STILL have a black thumb and part of my problem is not giving my plants enough water???)

When we arrived home from the store we decided to make our own wrapping paper by drawing pictures inspired by our readings about Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit on some butcher paper!