Grant's Celebration

You may remember a while back I posted that on April 29, 2009, Grant told me before he went to bed that during his play time in his room that afternoon he had asked Jesus in his heart. I know some may be skeptical that a 4 1/2 year old could really understand what this means but he very clearly explained why he wanted to do this and what it meant. He was very clear and his explanation very simple but he knew exactly what he was talking about and really when you think about it, the gift of salvation is really simple to receive; adults are the ones that seem to make it so complicated. Jesus also made it clear that it requires a child-like faith to receive Him, something that came so naturally for Grant. Oh, to have the faith of a child!

Prior to this day, we had been having discussions about Jesus for months and his questions led to more discussions and of course, more questions. He came to a point on his own that he realized he had done some things that were not nice...nothing unusual for a child his age, but typical behavior that led to him being punished. It was interesting because on that particular day, he had not been punished and we had not had any discussions about any particular behaviors, he said he was just thinking about some of the "bad" things he had done. I know people come from different schools of thought on this, but I firmly believe it is important for children to know that behaviors are bad but they are not bad. I want our children feeling they are valued and truly gifts that have been given to us. While I know at the core, we are all bad or sinful, God created us in His image, and I don't want anyone, especially my kids, looking at themselves as bad because they are a gift. Once he explained his feelings and how he arrived at this decision, I didn't feel the need to pray any special prayer with him. We did pray a prayer of celebration. He had made this decision on his own accord and it needed to be validated and celebrated so he called some family and he told about what he had done.

It was interesting because a few days after this, I was reading a blog that had this book on it

The lady was recommending this book because she read it and felt it was very helpful. She was encouraged to read it by several people when she shared how her 3 1/2 year old out of the blue came up to her and her husband one night and told them that Jesus was knocking on her heart's door. She said they didn't think she was ready to fully understand the concept of what Christ did for her on the cross. I know I would have never imagined hearing my 4 1/2 year old share so clearly how he had received the free gift of salvation through Jesus. I'm finding more and more that kids pick up and understand a lot more than we give them credit for and if we continue not only talking the talk, but walking the walk, they will draw the kind of conclusions we want them to draw about who Jesus is in our lives.

While I don't know if this will be the time he feels he truly accepted the gift of salvation, we celebrated as if it were because regardless, this was a big spiritual milestone in his life. In our house, we love to celebrate with food. :) Grant enjoys helping out in the kitchen so I came up with something I thought he would enjoy and we personalized it by building off the symbolic colors that explain the plan of salvation. We spread this activity out over two days because I did this activity with him while Peyton and Landon napped. I wanted to have plenty of time to talk to him about each step and allow him to ask all the questions he needed and allow for natural conversation.

Day 1: Grant made the first layer of the cake.




Then, Grant put dark (chocolate) icing on half of the bottom layer representing the sinful part of every person before they accept the gift of Jesus on the cross and on the other half it was covered with white icing showing the purity after receiving the gift.


Day 2: We made the second layer of the cake and finished all the decorating.

After covering the top layer with chocolate icing, we talked about how we all mess up and make mistakes and that is called sin. Then, I asked him what were some of his mistakes that he had thought about that day in his room and we put some of them on the cake.


Then, we talked about the great news that Jesus died on the cross so that our mistakes could be forgotten. He knew from Easter that when Jesus was on the cross, He bled, so Grant took the red icing and covered his sin with the red cross showing that it was being wiped out.


Next, came the great part where our hearts are made clean so he decorated the other half of the top layer with the white icing and we talked about when he asked Jesus in his heart, God made his heart clean.


Then, we talked further about what happens after we accept this gift. I explained that just as we grow up, God wants us to get to know him more and grow to be more like Him. Then, when we grow, we produce fruits of the spirit and we talked about the difference in fruit we eat and fruit of the spirit. I asked him if there were any fruits of the Spirit that he needed more of in his life so we used our green icing to create a tree that has grown and we put it on the white side and wrote out the fruits of the Spirit that Grant was asking God to help him have.


Then, the last part of our activity is how one day we get to celebrate and meet Jesus face to face when we leave this Earth and go to heaven. For some time now, he has asked a lot of questions about heaven so he really enjoyed making the street of gold and we wrote his name on the street along with the date that he asked Jesus in his heart.




We finished by talking about how we need to be kind and show Jesus' love to others and this lets the light of Jesus that is inside of us shine so others can see it. To symbolize this, we lit up the cake. With this many candles, it didn't stay lit for long but long enough to see his eyes get big and get a quick picture and then we both blew it out. :) Later, Grant wanted to give away some of the cake so we delivered it to others and we talked about how this is just one example of showing love by being willing to give away things we have. Of course, he has seen a lot of real-life examples of people showing us the love of God during our time of need. Real life examples are life's best teachers!


This was a special activity and one that I hope he will always remember too!