God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper

Here's a messy way to draw your youngsters into the meaning of this coming weekend. Make a mountain out of playdough to tell the story of Jesus' death and then turn it around and you have the tomb he arises from.

This idea can be found in my mom's book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions.

Ingredients for playdough:

• 4 c. of flour
• 1.5 c. salt
• 1.5 c. water
• 1 Tbs. oil

(Increase or decrease depending on how big you want your mountain to be.)

Other items you'll need:

• several pipe cleaners
• 2 twigs
• 1 small aluminum can

Making the Pieces

• 

  Bind two twigs together with a piece of pipe cleaner to make a cross about five or six inches tall.
• Make some stick figures out of pipe cleaners that will represent Jesus and a "crowd." (You get to decide how many you need for your kids to be convinced it's a crowd.)

Making the Mountain

• 

  Mix playdough ingredients and knead. Add small amounts of water as needed until the texture is right.
• Separate a small lump of dough and form a disc-shaped "stone" to cover the entry to the "tomb." (The can will be the tomb, so the stone needs to be a little bigger around than the can.)
• Shape the rest of the dough into a mound. Embed the can into one side, open side out, to create a cave.
• Press the cross into the top of the mountain to form a hole deep enough to stand the cross in. Make the hole a bit larger than the stick because the hole will get smaller when the mountain bakes.
• Press a fork randomly around into the hill to make "footholds" for the stick people.
• Bake the "mountain" and the "stone" 4-5 hours at 250 degrees.
• When cooled, color with paint or markers.

Using Your Playdough Mountain

With your kids on Friday, you can reenact the story of Jesus' death—putting him on the cross, burying him in the cave, and rolling the stone in front of it. 

On Easter, before your little ones are awake, take him out of the tomb and put him somewhere for them to find. First they'll notice the tomb is empty; then they'll see that he's alive and all the other pipe-cleaner people are jumping for joy.

Their excitement at seeing an aluminum can without a stick figure in it is a good reminder how much more excited we should be about the real thing.

(A version of this article was originally posted April, 2007)