Today is the Feast of First Fruits (Leviticus 23:9-13), which also means that today we start counting up to Pentecost, or Shavuot, the “Feast of Weeks.” It’s called that because there are seven weeks (50 days) between these two feasts.
“From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to YHWH” (Leviticus 23:15-16).
I am still learning all the ways this feast is significant, but since the Scriptures say to “count,” well then, count we will!
I got the idea on Pinterest to make a “Counting the Omer” chart. I bought some plastic mini cups with lids, plus a 50-cent piece of poster board. An “omer” is a Hebrew measurement used for barley, and it refers to the offerings brought to God in thankfulness for the harvest He had provided.
I very lightly marked squares (2 1/2-inches by 2 1/2 inches) onto the poster board, 7 rows by 7 days in each row. Then I started gluing the cups onto the chart.
I had many curious helpers stopping by to help me! It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to tell my kids about God when we do the “craft projects” included in His Word.
I used Elmer’s Glue to attach the cups, but I’m probably going to have to do them all over again, because the cups have been popping off over the last 24 hours. I should have used tacky glue instead.
Next I printed out some verses that we can read each day when we do our “counting.” (You can download the print-out I made by clicking here.)
We folded the little verse papers and put them into each cup. Then I wrapped little pieces of candy in tissue paper, so the kids wouldn’t be able to see what kinds were in each cup. 🙂
Finally, I put a lid on each cup, then numbered the cups from 1-49. (On Day 50, we’ll have Big Gifts.)
Finally, we hung the chart on the wall with thumb tacks. (It’s a little heavy.)
Last year, we did a sticker chart, gluing little pieces of barley on each spot. However, some days we just forgot to do it! That’s why I decided to do candy this year. Now I’ll have seven children reminding me. 😉
How does your family count the omer? What have you learned from this?
