It was an early Sunday morning in April—Easter Sunday, to be exact—and Elsie and Kathleen were dressed and all ready for the celebration. “Good morning, my sisters!” Elsie’s sweet voice rang out in a song. “It is Easter, and we must arise early!” Felicity rolled over in bed on the other side of the room. “Whhhyyyy???” she asked sleepily. “Because!” said Elsie. “The Lord has risen!” Felicity yawned, got up, woke her sisters up, and told them, “The Looord (yaawn) has risen (yawn)…” One by one the girls popped out of their beds and dressed in their Easter dresses.
The first girls to get dressed were Addy (FAQ: Q: Did it take a while to do Addy’s hair? A: Yes, Yes it did.), Samantha, and Josefina. Addy was wearing her Christmas Dress, but today she would pretend it was a springtime dress. Josefina was wearing a spring flowers outfit and Samantha’s dress was sewn by Madeline.
Kit leading the way, the girls trudged down the hall excitedly, anxious to see what the Easter Bunny had left them.
Kit was the first to notice two colorful Easter baskets just the size for an American Girl doll parked on the table. “Look at this!” she cried. “Look what Mr.Easter Bunny left for us!” *Madeline winking to herself in the background*. “Oh my goodness!” shouted Kit. There’s candy and stickers in here!”
“And, oh, there’s one of…of…. of ME!” Kit sighed dramatically. She was almost jumping up and down at the fact she was a sticker. “I have got to show Maria Kit this at our next playdate! She’ll FLIP to see ourselves as a sticker!” Kit hugged the sticker pack close. But she wasn’t the only one surprised.
Not only Kit, but Josefina, Felicity, and Addy also had stickers of themselves!!! Wow!!! It was incredible! All the dolls wanted a chance to see their sister as a sticker.
“Yall look!” cried Addy in her sweet southern accent. “There are not only stickeroos of us, but there is an envelopes and stationary kit, and also word stickers!” The dolls were fascinated as they munched down on mini chocolate rabbits.
This is what Madeline came out to. A bucket of chocolate eggs and candy, a movie called “A Little Princess“, a book called “Amelia’s Middle School Survival Guide”, and a summer-time dress and knee socks.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. It was Maria Kit and Mia! Maria Kit and Kit were best friends, and Madeline’s family knew Maria Kit and Mia’s owner’s family very well, so the dolls got to come over a lot. But it was still a great surprise! “What are you doing here?” Kit laughed, hugging her friends. “We couldn’t miss Easter!” said Mia. “Well, come in,” said Kit. “Your just in time. We are just about to read ” The First Easter”.
The girls gathered around. “Ok,” began Elsie. “I am going to read you the story of the first Easter. Is everyone ready?” Everybody nodded. “yes.”
“Once upon a time, over 2000 years ago, a baby named Jesus was born in a stable. Do you remember me telling you that story? Jesus was born in Bethlehem. His parents, Mary and Joseph, were visiting there because of the census, which was when Caesar Augustus wanted record of everybody and wanted them to be taxed. Mary was pregnat with the holy baby, which an angel told her to name Jesus. When they got to Bethlehem, there was no room in any of the inns. One man who owned a inn felt sorry for the ill and pregnat women and her husband and told them the only place they could stay was a smelly stable. Imagine…..the holy King of Kings who would die for us and rise again, the Prince of Peace, was born in a smelly, old, nasty stable with His only company some donkeys, sheeps, and shepherds.”
“Jesus grew up like a regular boy and man and did many miracles. He was the only perfect one, and He never did anything wrong. Not even the teeniest little white lie or bad thought. He was perfect. Many people wanted to see Him and touch Him.”
“One day, he rode into town on a donkey on what we now call “Palm Sunday.” The reason it was called that is because the people took palm branches and waved them at Jesus. They called, “Hosannah! Hosannah is the King of Isreal!” Some men ripped the clothes off their backs and made a walkway for Jesus. But Jesus was sad because he knew that by the end of the week these same people would be calling out something very, very, different.”
“One of Jesus’s disciples, Judas, betrayed Him and helped the Roman soldiers arrest Him if they gave him money. So the soldiers gave Judas the money and he told them where Jesus was. Jesus knew that they would kill Him. But it was the plan to save the bad, sinful world, so Jesus knew He had to do it. They beat Jesus and put thorns on His head. You may think, “Oh, he must have done something really terrible!” But Jesus did nothing. Nothing at all. Pilot didn’t think he did anything wrong either, but the people insisted so. So Pilot ordered the soldiers to beat Jesus more so the people would be happy. After, Pilot took Jesus and a cold-hearted, mean, scoundrel criminal who killed people and murdered and stole. That man’s name was Barabas. Pilot told the people he would kill one of them. The mean criminal and muderer, or Jesus. The people said Barabas shoudl be let free, and they yelled “Crucify Him!” at Jesus. The people yelling “Crucify Him!” were the same people who earlier in the week were calling out “Hosannah!” So why were they now calling “Crucify Him?” Maybe they didn’t want to be different. They didn’t want to be made fun of. “If I stand up for Jesus,” they thought, “Will I be crucified?” So they went with the crowd and thought of themselves. So Pilot, even though he didn’t think anything was wrong with Jesus, he decided to go with what the crowd thought, too, and he ordered Jesus to be killed. Jesus died on the cross on what we now know as Good Friday. It was sad and horrific, but Jesus was saving the world and relieving them of their sins. Jesus was perfect. We are all sinners. Jesus, a perfect one, had to take all the sins of the world on Him and suffer so we wouldn’t have to. When we sin today, all we have to do is ask God to forgive us, and He will.”
“But Jesus didn’t stay dead. Three days later, on the very first Easter, He came back to lie. Jesus is still alive and is all around us. We celebrate Easter because Jesus has saved us and then He did not stay dead, but He rose again. We can thank the Lord for saving us, and we can ask Him to come into our hearts. He will always be there for us, even if we can’t see Him. That’s what faith is.”
“That’s the end of the story!” Elsie said, shutting the book. The girls clapped and cheers. Elsie held up her hand. “Let us pray. Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for dieing on the cross for our sins and suffering so we didn’t have to. But you did not stay dead, for three days later you rose again. We thank you that we can put our trust in you and can say we are Christians. Please forgive us for everything that displeases you. Help us to live a life of faith, and help us to be more like you. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.”
The girls clapped. “Time for the egg hunt at Julia and Hannah’s house!” shouted Samantha! “Yay!” the AGDC dolls cheered. Felicity clapped. “Come on! Last one there is a rotten Easter Egg!”
THE END! 🙂 🙂 🙂
HAVE A HAPPY, HAPPY EASTER!
American Girl Doll Central 