You and I make mistakes and do things wrong.
But one person who lived a long time ago didn’t do anything wrong. He was perfect. He was born in a stable where animals are kept. He didn’t have a lot of money, but he didn’t complain. As he grew up, he got bigger and bigger just like you. But when children teased him, he didn’t say mean things back to them. When his mother and father asked him to do something, he did what they asked. He had fun with the other children, but he never did anything wrong. He was perfect. His name was Jesus.
When Jesus grew up, he was very kind and good. He helped people.He loved children. He did miracles and made sick people well. He did many amazing things that other people could not do. That’s because Jesus wasn’t just an ordinary man. Although Mary was his mother, God was his father. He was the son of God.
He loved the people so much. And because he was the son of God, he could even look ahead many, many years and see you and me. And you know what? He loved you and he loved me. But loving us and the other people also made him sad at times because he knew that we wouldn’t be able to go to Heaven. God lives in Heaven and because God is so good, people who do wrong things can’t go to Heaven and be with him. And that made Jesus sad.
But God had made a plan, and that’s why God’s son Jesus had come to live on earth.
God didn’t want us to have to die and not go to Heaven. God wanted to save our lives. Since Jesus was perfect, Jesus could die in our place, and then we could live. Just like the bunny in the Easter story was willing to die for the angel, Jesus was willing to die for us. So that’s what Jesus did.
On the day we now call Good Friday, some men took Jesus and killed him by putting him up on a mean cross where he died. But three days later, Jesus rose up from the dead. Jesus was alive. He wasn’t dead anymore. And because of what Jesus did, we can live forever. Our bodies will die one day, but the real person inside—the real you and the real me, won’t die. If we thank Jesus for dying on the cross for us and ask him to be our Savior, we will live forever in Heaven with God.
And that’s the REAL Easter story!