Easter Eggs and New Life

I truly enjoy Easter more than any other holiday.  When I was a child, we lived in a beautiful area in Alabama where there were large old homes and a precious little park.  The park had a playground, fields, tennis courts, basketball and a wonderful rose garden.  Almost all of my childhood memories take place out of doors.  When I begin to smell the flowering bushes and blossoms of Spring, memories flood my mind, and I am once again transported to Delano Park.


Every Easter, our church held a picnic at Delano.  We had all the traditional foods associated with the day: ham, potato salad, green bean casserole, asparagus.  But the things that we children most looked forward to were the colored eggs!  We would usually spend an afternoon in advance around the kitchen table, coloring the Easter eggs.  When Sunday rolled around, my father and the other men would hide the eggs for us.  The prize egg always held a few coins - a special treat since the little store across the street sold penny candy!  (As a side note, the prize egg was usually a plastic Hanes L'eggs egg! Do you remember those?)  A sweet lady from church often painted the plastic eggs as gifts for ladies.  She made the most beautiful eggs.

Now I know that Easter eggs are very controversial for many people, but let me give you my take on it.  I don't like that the enemy has taken over all of the holidays.  Holidays that are rich in Christian heritage seem to have transferred attention to fictional characters.  Yes, I have a big problem with that.  But...I refuse to let Satan steal all the fun from my children.  I have always take such opportunities to find godly meanings and apply them.  When we have lived in other countries, I use those colored eggs to God's benefit.  We can always draw a crowd of little children when we walk outside and hide the eggs and hand out baskets for kids to use.  I explain the Gospel and how Jesus gives us new life.  I explain that some of the things that remind us about the new life that we've been give are the baby animals - lambs, chicks, bunnies.  But I spend the time explaining about the eggs.  Our bodies are just the shells.  Inside, we have our minds...but I always focus on the soul housed deep inside.  God doesn't just want one aspect of who we are...He wants to touch all of us.  He wants to give new life to every bit of our lives.

You may want to cling to the controversy of the colored eggs, but I will cling to the Gospel that is expressed in a simple, childlike way.  Use every opportunity to touch the world.  Take what the enemy has done and turn it into a GOD moment!  I tell all of my friends that we don't even think about an "Easter Bunny"...instead we remember the changes that God has made in our life when we see the signs of Spring.

Look for opportunities in the world to express heavenly concepts.  You'll be amazed at how much more good you can do when you take those opportunities versus when you choose to ignore the moment because of the controversy.

May this Spring bring to you great joy in light of the Cross!