The Garden of the Good Shepherd: A Sticker Calendar to Count the 50 Days of Easter
Peter Mazar & Tomie dePaola
Liturgy Training Publications, 2000
I don’t honestly remember when I stumbled across The Garden of the Good Shepherd sticker calendar. It may have been one of those rare moments of Amazon kismet, when they actually recommended something I might want to read. (Does anyone else confuse their magical recommendation machine with their reading/buying/browsing choices? Also, whatever algorithm they use, it’s not very sophisticated when it comes to determining one’s choices in theological kidlit. But that’s another rant.)
Anyhow. Whenever I did stumble across it, I ordered it immediately, and I have been hiding it in my sewing room ever since. And I am so excited to recommend it to you for your family’s Easter celebration.
What precisely is it? And do I promise it’s not cheesy?
Yes. I promise. It’s a lovely large format (17″ x 22″ opened) sticker background depicting a meadow, a fountain with a running stream, the sea in the background, and a city on a hill. Inside are 50 stickers and a week-by-week guide for using them. The printed guide instructs you which sticker to place each day, an appropriate Scripture to read together, and a short meditation on the symbol and its meaning.
The scene changes each week, as you affix new stickers. There’s a week when we are daily adding stickers to make the pasture of the good shepherd; a week in which the Lord’s Table is set in the field; and my favorite – the week in which we build the city and prepare to enter it for a royal wedding. Each week gives us a glimpse of God’s creation and a way of seeing it through the lens of Jesus’ resurrection and the new life that is already bursting into our world – as well as increasing anticipation for his final renewal of all things.
I love the idea of maintaining the Easter celebration past the first few days.But friends: 50 days is a long time. It overlaps with Memorial Day and the end of the school year, and a million other things that distract me once the chocolate eggs have been consumed. This sticker calendar is as much for me as for my kids: to remind us, daily, that we are living in a world that has been rescued, that God has said “Yes!” to in the most definitive way possible. To remind us, now, that we walk in new life and that the death we see around us is simply not the last or most important thing. Fifty days of celebration is not nearly enough.
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Reblogged this on Dschondog's Blog and commented:
I almost burned my house down using Ann Voskamp’s Easter to Pentacost wreath with candles to light. This may be the solution that takes me daily to Pentacost. I am a grandma and have grandchildren who may pop in to share it with me. Thanks. I am reblogging to show this to others.
Thanks, Dawn! I know – I love the idea of the Easter to Pentecost wreath, but with two small ones and a cat, I think it would probably end with a fire extinguisher. I hope your grandkids enjoy it!
Reblogged this on thefisherlady.
I’m looking at getting this for our family, but I have one question: are the stickers reusable? Or is this a single-year sort of purchase?
They are reusable — although, to be honest, I reserved the right to peel and stick them myself, since it was a little tricky for my four-year-old to do it himself without tearing them. For storage after use, a piece of unprinted photo paper or a plastic sleeve should do the job.
Sounds great! Thanks 🙂