My Most Memorable Easter
The delicately decorated Sugar Easter Egg, gifted to me that morning, now lay broken in the backseat of our car. I had woken abruptly from a deep sleep, launching forward into the safety of my seatbelt’s grip, after our family of four unexpectedly became involved in a five-car chain accident on our way home from visiting friends.
At the time, I was perhaps six or seven years of age, and can still remember waking up in my wool-lined car seat, shocked, thinking only of my Egg.
This Egg was no ordinary Egg! Its soft pastel colours were exquisite, and its centre was cut away to expose a tiny world of miniature iced animals. It was the first and last Egg I have seen like it.
My plan had been to keep it wrapped up and safe on my bedroom dresser. It now appeared too broken to even recognise.
The accident happened on a main street, with residential houses either side. I can remember being guided out of the car by an emergency service officer and told to head to a nearby house’s front lawn with my younger sister, my parents, and several other families. On the way, my Mum realised her glasses were missing, and she asked if I could help her look for them. It was dark, cold, and spitting with rain. I looked at the road and saw it covered in an array of broken glass and plastic.
After a short time of searching, Mum thought she had found a lens from one side of her glasses and reluctantly left the scene of damaged cars behind, following instructions given to her by the emergency service officer.
As we stood on the grass, I noticed a long line of people making their way out of a large Church close by, and parade down the street holding lanterns and candles. Mum told me it was to do with an Easter celebration.
It was not long before the owner of the house came to her door and invited us inside. Her home was large with wooden floorboards and a high ceiling. It felt cold in the house and her furniture looked very old. The lady was kind and welcoming and offered for people to use her landline phone if they needed.
After what felt like a long night, our family finally made it back home safely with only mild cases of whiplash. The next morning, my Mum had found a spare pair of glasses and inspected the piece of glass she’d found on the road that she’d thought was one of her glass’s lenses. To her surprise, she discovered it was a piece of glass from the back windscreen of another car, with blue lines running through it.
Sometime after, on a car trip out, I remember Mum’s excitement when she found her missing glasses. They had been hidden in the passenger side seatbelt floor attachment.
The broken piece of glass mistaken to be mum’s glass’s lens remained in her blood meter bag for quite some time. That bag got carried everywhere with her so she could regularly test her blood sugar levels as a Type 1. Diabetic. The piece of glass became representative of how much had been broken that night, but our family and the other people involved, though a little bruised and sore, came out safe.
The Sugar Easter Egg appeared on my dresser, also restored, left with noticeable marks from where it had been iced back together. For a period, I loved looking at that Egg, until one day I decided to start eating it. I don’t remember how long I took to eat it, but eventually I did.
Today, this is still my most memorable Easter and I’d like to look on it a little differently.
Using my imagination, I’d like to think of Jesus being a bit like that Sugar Easter Egg. He was no ordinary guy! He did life with His disciples and the people He met. People were captivated by Him. Unexpectedly to the people, He died, broken on that cross.
Jesus’ journey to that cross was not unexpected to Him though. This plan had been put into motion long before then. It ultimately began in the Garden of Eden when a choice to sin was made. It’s been a chain accident ever since. The good news is, that though it can feel bleak, cold, dark, and spitting with rain sometimes, and our bodies can be bruised and suffer whiplash, we are safe with the promise of Jesus’ love, and the gift He gave, so we can be restored and live in Heaven with Him!
While the Disciples and those closest to Him were in mourning after His death on that cross, He lay resting. When all hope seemed lost, and confusion lingered in the air, He rose, fully restored. When He appeared to His followers, He was known by the markings left on His body that showed the wounding He took on Himself to save us.
Do you have Jesus sitting metaphorically on your dresser? At a distance away, only admired. Or have you feasted on His word and taken Him into your heart, your life, your very being?
For me, eating that beautiful Sugar Easter Egg dosen’t sound so bad when I know that the true purpose for that Egg was to be eaten and enjoyed.
This Easter, as you enjoy a few Easter Eggs, I pray that you think on Jesus and the wonderful gift of eternal life He gave you, to keep you safe and to give you the opportunity to be in a personal relationship with Him. Feast on Him and with Him every day.
‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)
Following is a list of links from my blogging friends who have also written about Easter, feel free to give them a read and enjoy xx
Easter: so much more than tradition by Virginia Wright
A Deliciously Definitive Demolition (An Easter Contemplation) by Mazzy Adams
Barabbas or Jesus? By Nola Lorraine
Easter through a female lens by Susan Barnes