Easter is a busy time for birds. A great many of us will start to build nests and then lay eggs in them. We lay all kinds of beautiful eggs which can be anything from white through to blue or beige through to brown. And every single egg that’s laid represents a new life, a new beginning, and a new creation. So our eggs tie in beautifully with the message of Easter Day.
Humans can’t lay eggs in quite the same way, and I suppose this must have made them feel rather sad. And it took until the 1870’s for humans to find a solution to this problem. Yes, a certain Mr Fry and then a Mr Cadbury decided to create the chocolate egg! Yes, an egg made out of nothing but chocolate! I mean, what use is that? Did they expect some kind of chocolate chicken to hatch out from the middle? And what does a chocolate egg have to do with Easter? Humans can defy all sense and logic!
Let me tell you something. The real message of Easter is that it’s safe to put all of your eggs in one basket! Because the resurrection of Jesus proved to the world that death doesn’t have to be finite and that love never dies. Ultimately, it wasn’t the nails that held Jesus to the cross; it was love. And His emergence from the tomb on Easter Day proved that Jesus doesn’t simply belong to the past but also to our present as well as to our future. Easter is all about our own rebirth. About hope replacing despair. Joy replacing grief. Good overcoming evil. And life defeating death. Not only for Jesus Himself but for all of us. So every time one of my feathered friends hatches out a “proper” egg, it serves as a reminder of this because the miracle of a chick emerging from an egg echoes the miracle of Jesus’ emergence from the tomb. That’s why real eggs, and not chocolate ones should be at the very heart of our Easter celebrations. Happy Easter everybody. Happy Easter!
“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”
(Pope John Paul II).
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
(John 11: 25-26)
“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay’.”
(Matthew 28: 5-6)
“We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:14)