Courageous Joy

Our First Passover....

Yes, I know that Passover officially begins TONIGHT and runs for a week. We chose to have our Seder last night so that all would be home. We do the same with all of our other celebrations.

We are studying Year 1 of Tapestry of Grace this year - the ancients. When we studied this 4 years ago we thought it would be a good idea to have a Passover Seder for our unit celebration; we never pulled it off. I spent time this year reading several books and sites for info. I noted how often in Scripture the words "Remember when I brought you out of Egypt" are penned. The more I learned and shared with Mike, the more we became convinced that celebrating this Biblical Holiday would help our children make great connections between the OT and the NT. It makes prophecy come alive. It is amazing to see the beautiful picture that God gave the Jewish nation of Jesus as the Passover Lamb.

My biggest phopah of the night was the french bread I had to go with dinner. Um....oh well. We laughed and told ourselves we are under grace. It was fine. We are not celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread this year. One thing at a time. LOL

I read several Haggadahs (order of the service) to find one to work for us. I googled, I read the Haggadah at Biblical Holidays, the Messianic Family Haggadah from Jews for Jesus, and in Family Celebrations at Easter. I've previously reviewed this book. They all had the same basic elements. They differed in how much TEACHING they attempted to do....and in how long they were. I had been warned by those who have attended Passovers at various churches etc that they can get heavy on the teaching which can become long for children, and take away from actually experiencing a Passover Seder. We had studied the connections between Christ and Passover with our curriculum. I decided we didn't need to reteach it all in the Haggadah. Several spots, including Mrs. Sampson in A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays, speak of a Simple Seder for very young. The Seder Plate, a quick explaination, and telling the story of Exodous with a picture book. I wanted a bit more than this. We looked for one that would be cleary Messianic and yet short. We settled on the Haggadah from Ann Hibbard's Family Celebrations at Easter. The ceremony itself took about an hour around the table (a blessing in itself)! It worked well for us to do this now, during Passover, rather than during Lent. It worked best for our Schedule as we had other church celebrations during Lent. It also extended the season in a way that has been personally meaningful.

Robin (A family Guide to Biblical Holidays) stresses in her book that this is NOT about having the perfect Seder. I took from that to RELAX and have fun with this...which we did.

Here are some photos - I could have taken more but wanted to be a participant and not an observer....

Our Passover Table - Traditional Jews will use their best plates. I used my China and antique Wine Goblets for the first time. I wasn't going to, but when it came time to set a nice table I realized I still have my Christmas/Snowmen plates out. ::snort::


Our Seder Plate - Charoset (chopped apples, walnuts, cinamon, honey), lamb bone, horseraddish, "roasted" eggs, celery and romaine, salt water in the middle


To keep things moving I started all out with some horseraddish and celery and their own Haggadah.


The Unity or Afikomen (means dessert or I have come)

We began


Zander asks "Why are things so different"

and Nolan reads the four questions of Passover

Josiah, Jamin, Jared and Arielle were our readers. Mike was the Leader. I was the lead family respondent. Zander and Nolan shared the "youngest child" responsibilities and Stacia was our cute chaos factor.


She's washing her hands at the start...

Horse and a Rider?

Even our picky eaters participated - Arielle was NOT impressed with horseraddish - they were lucky I couldn't find the REAL, whole horseraddish - next year. LOL

The Afikomen is an amazing illustration of the Messiah; amazing as it is Jewish Tradition....three pieces of matzah are covered on a plate...representing Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The middle piece is taken and broken. 1/2 is hidden to be found later by children. When it is found it is ransomed by the father. The matzah symbolizing Jesus is broken, wrapped in linen, and hid for a period of time. It is then found, uncovered, and ransomed by the Father amidst great joy and laughter. Could this have been added to the Jewish Seder by first century Jewish believers? There is no real concensus as to when or why it was added.

Mike with broken afikomen

I hid it. Later, they looked all over the house. The most OBVIOUS spot was the pile of unfolded laundry on the couch. ::snort::

Jared finds the cover - which means the matzah has to be near.

Chaos ensued

Nolan found it

In the wild search it was broken further and Arielle found it too

Mike ransomed it with the only bill I had in my grocery envelop $20 - see how you build excitement????

Thoughts: God liked to tell His people to party. Each celebrations reveals more about God and His character. It was a bit uncomfortable for the older ones especially as we are not from a high church background and reading responses felt "unnatural". I told them in 10 years we'll be able to do it from memory and not need a Haggadah. ::snort:: I felt like a bit too much emphasis this year was on HOW to do it RIGHT.....and that is to be expected as none of us have ever attended a Seder and so had to pay attention to what to say and do next. I think this will only get better as the years go by.

Thanks to Dorothy and Jen (and other SHS members) who answered my questions and shared the lessons they have learned while celebrating Passover. It helped us to enjoy a grace-filled celebration of our Deliverer/Savior/Redeemer.

I did miss the girls and wished we had begun this 10 or 15 years ago....but they are growing and changing as we are growing and changing and it is all in God's timing and plan.