A Baby Seder

Because we have a blended family, I had to get good at celebrating holidays even if they didn’t fall on the actual holiday. We weren’t together for the holidays, but that didn’t mean we didn’t want to celebrate them. And we had to invent a few traditions because Easter Sunday just isn’t the same on the second Thursday of the month.

So, for Easter, I created a Seder. The Passover Seder is a rich and gorgeous service from the Jewish religion to honor God’s instruction to honor the time when the Angel of Death passed over the homes marked with the blood of a lamb. The Seder is a meal with prayers and foods and practices. I learned about it in a class and read about it as research for writing our family’s Seder. I tried to imagine how the Seder might be if Christians had carried on the holiday celebrations Jesus observed.

So, I wrote something up and we’ve done it for eight years.

This year, Little Sir is just shy of 20 months. He was not going to sit through the Seder. So, I abbreviated it. A lot. And as I did so, I thought, It’s fine. We won’t get so much spiritual value from this year but it’ll be part of building Little Sir’s foundation of how we celebrate Easter in our home. It’s for him, not me.

Yea, well, as with most things in my life lately, God had other plans.

There was plenty of spiritual value.

Don’t postpone the fun: Little Sir loves blowing out candles. So, I lit the candles and he was not going to rest until he blew them out.Why wait till the end. Enjoy the fun when it presents itself.

Be Happy with Enough: We eat of the unleavened bread to remember how God provided for the Israelites in the desert on their exodus from Egypt. We eat of the unleavened bread to remind us that God provides.

Little Sir thought this was the best part. How I wish I could be so happy with Enough and Provision and not always want More.

Don’t Hang on to the Bitter: We eat the bitter herbs dipped in salt to remember the bitterness of slavery and the salt of the tears shed. We eat of the herbs and salt to remember God is with us even in bitterness and grief.

Little Sir mulled it over, took a bite and spit it across the table. It was pretty impressive, actually. And I thought, I need to remember that I don’t need to chew and chew and chew on bitterness. That I could just get rid of it as easily as he did. And shed way fewer tears in the process.

Embrace the Sweet without Suspicion: We eat yams and apples to remember God’s goodness and protection of the Israelites on their journey and bringing them to the Promised Land. We eat yams and apples to remember God gave us his Son.

Little Sir wanted nothing to do with it. I knew he would like it but I think he thought I was trying to sneak him carrots which he does not like. No matter how I cajoled, he just would not try it. How often have I closed myself off to something wonderful because I had all ready made up my mind or I felt it was “too good to be true”?

Big Lessons in Small Seders this Easter.