Empty Egg
Six year old Jamison sauntered up to my desk clutching a
plastic carton of fillable Easter eggs. As she proudly placed them on my desk,
I realized what they were--resurrection eggs. Her teacher at school had
provided them with instructions and materials so that each child would be able
to take the set home and tell others the story.
She carefully opened each egg, recounting the story of Palm Sunday and Good Friday by telling me that the palm frond was what people laid on the ground when they shouted Hosanna; the thorns from the rose bush represented the crown of thorns placed on Jesus' head; the gauze represented the cloths that Jesus was wrapped in for burial and so on.
When she got to the egg numbered 12 she opened it with
anticipation, almost throwing it open and announced that it was empty as if she
was surprised. But Jamison excitedly proclaimed that it represented the empty
tomb...that Jesus wasn't there.
To Christians around the world that simple statement says it all. The grave could not hold Him. Jesus had gone into the tomb a dead lifeless body that had taken on the sin of the world but when He rose from the dead, He brought new life to us, leaving the old sinful ones in the grave. We don't have to live with them anymore.
To the rest of the world the empty egg represents nothing of value, except eaten candy, money gone or worthless little toys that will be lost or broken. For adults it may represent broken promises, dashed hopes and dreams or fears for the future, but it doesn't have to be that way. That's why Jesus came.
Which will you choose--abundant life or emptiness?
John 10:10 The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
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