Almost the moment Hannah opened her eyes she remembered that it was Easter and she hopped out of bed as I scrambled for the camera and ran after her. Her bed head just made her all the more adorable!
The start of her hunt. Could she be any sweeter?
Finding the dollhouse stash
Spotting her Easter treats
‘Fwip Fwops’ are new to Hannah and she makes me giggle as she sits down and does this with her toes to get them on. LOL!
It’s fun to see how she organized her treats.
This video made me giggle. Shhh…the eggs are hatching under the pink hay!
Happy Easter my sweet bunny Hannah XiaoFen! You are the most precious little girl and mommy loves you SO much!
And now for the VERY BEST PART of our Easter!
After the hunt we went to church where Hannah has begun to sit with me in ‘big church’ during the first part of the service and then I take her to Sunday School part way through. This day as expected focused on the resurrection of Jesus Christ! She was paying close attention and had many questions. We whispered back and forth a bit during church and then talked later. I also read her the book, ‘The Easter Story’ by Patricia Pingry that we’d found the week before. It talks about the real reason we celebrate Easter. The death and resurrection of Jesus.
Hannah had been asking lots of questions over the past couple of weeks and I was doing my very best to answer them in ways that a 4yo could understand. Later that day as I was in another room I could hear her chattering while she coloured. This is oh so normal for her but this time it was really neat to hear her telling the Easter story! She was saying things like, ‘Jesus died on the cross but He didn’t stay there. Mary went to find him but the stone was moved and He wasn’t there! He was alive!’ It overwhelmed me to hear my sweet baby girl recounting the Easter story with such passion in her words.
I pulled her into my lap and we talked about what she’d been learning and I asked her if she wanted to invite Jesus to live in her heart. My sweet little girl said, ‘Yes.’ Mommy did her best to stay calm and not cry when I said, ‘Honey, let’s pray together. I’ll say something and then you pray it after me.’
What happened next showed me that in her 4yo way, my little love knew exactly what she was doing. I prayed, ‘Dear God.’ (Expecting her to pray the same.) And yet her sweet words were ‘I’m sorry for the wrong things I do.’ Yes, she understood. We finished the prayer together and Hannah now has Jesus living in her heart forever! We called Grandma immediately and shared the exciting news with she and Grandpa and then told Nana the following morning. Over the past couple of weeks she has told people, ‘I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart’ while she’s with me and she has also told me she as shared with others like her Preschool teacher.
She is 4 and may not understand as an adult understands but she understands with a child’s heart….a child’s heart with Jesus living in it!
Yippee Jesus!!!
“Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 19:14 (NIV)
So sweet! Children understand better than anyone.
ReplyDeletePraise God!
ReplyDeleteTears. Certainly and Easter you will NEVER forget.
ReplyDeletePam
Absolutely beautiful, and I'm so happy for you and Hannah. I love how much she enjoys learning about Jesus!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations and welcome to the family, sweet Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you shared this story. My kids looked over my shoulder and asked what I was reading and what Hannah was doing in the last picture. I explained that she had just accepted Jesus into her heart and she was doing a little dance. My son asked, how do you do that?
Now we've been talking about this for a long time. But your story of Hannah prompted another discussion. This one went all the way. Both of my children prayed to accept Jesus Tuesday night.
We went on to talk about baptism being a response to following Jesus. Both of my kids felt nervous about getting up in front of the congregation for baptism. I explained that they could be baptized anywhere there was water such a lake, pond, or river. They asked, "What about the bathtub?" This led to my husband baptizing both kids in the bathtub that same night.
Thanks again for sharing your wonderful story which led to our own bit of wonderfulness.