Easter comes early this year, and in its honor I changed my header to these lovely Ukranian eggs. I’ve always marvelled at the intricacy of the patterns and the hours of patient, careful artistry they exemplify. I’ve been reading about them here. I’m not Ukrainian myself, but there’s a good-sized slavic population where I live, and several Russian orthodox churches. Sometimes they have egg exhibits (egg zibits?).
I took the girls to an Easter egg hunt extravaganza at a nearby evangelical church today. It seems like a great place. We know of it because it recently hosted Upward basketball, a noncompetetive sports league for kids that incorporates scripture memory and an emphasis on character. We were impressed by the sweet spirit of the adults involved in the program, and by the quality of the kids, and by the church’s obvious heart for its surrounding community.
But something’s bothering me about this morning. It was a well-organized event that involved lots of different activities for kids, from face painting to a bounce house to various games to a visit with the Easter bunny, who offered the pastor a basket of eggs containing different Easter symbols to be used as props for telling the Easter story. The Easter bunny wanted everyone to know that Easter wasn’t about her.
I love that there was an evangelistic boldness. But more and more, I feel dissatisfied with the formulaic approach of getting a captive audience, telling them that Jesus died for their sins, and offering to pray with them to invite Jesus into their hearts.
Stop and look at that last sentence. What person in their right mind would make a life decision based on it? It raises far more questions than it answers. Why did Jesus die? Who was he? How does his dying change anything about my sin? What’s my sin? How does he live in my heart?
During this week, I feel a need to revisit these things. I don’t want this season to pass by without such reflection… especially here, in a blog that’s about “findings.” I love how those eggs look, but I don’t want to end up like them — painted shells originally intended to hold new life.
That’s a very pretty header image. When I was a child we decorated eggs like this at a public library craft activity. I still have an old photo of my sisters and I grinning and holding our bright designed eggs. It was a tricky process, with fantastic-looking results, even for what kids could do!
I’m completely jealous! :-) I would love to give it a whirl myself someday.
I learned how to do it but you can bet mine didn’t look a single thing like those! I made one that was a very simple, crude attempt at a Ukrainian pattern and then I did an abstract one that was a lot easier and more fun!