Easter time is filled with fun memories from my childhood – sunrise service, pretty dresses worn with lace-rimmed socks and patent leather shoes, baskets lovingly prepared and waiting for us in the living room on Easter morning, big family gatherings and of course, the infamous city-wide Easter egg hunt.
I really loved the egg hunt. It was always held at the sprawling lawn in the center of town. Every inch of grass was filled with candy and as a little person it seemed to stretch on for miles. Dozens of children would restlessly gather behind a chalk line, then at the sound of the horn, race towards the lawn.
The funny thing was, in all the years we as children attended the Easter egg hunts, I never came home with a single piece of candy. Why you ask? Well, hidden somewhere on that sprawling lawn was a single golden egg and whoever found that egg was promised a grand prize. For whatever reason, I always chose to go after the golden egg even though I came home every year empty-handed (and then would try to scrounge some candy from my little brother whose pockets and basket were always bursting at the seams).
The hope of something greater was what I was after. I was after the one thing. I was after the prize. Philippians 3:13 says this:
“I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing:
Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,
I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize
for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
This Scripture reminds me that no matter what struggle I may or may not be going through in the present moment, that I can keep my focus on the “one thing” and the assurance of His heavenly promises to me.
Two thousand years ago our Creator, out of love, sent His son to bear the burdens of this life that no human could possibly bear. He loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die so that we might live. Why would Jesus want to come to this earth to die, you might ask? The answer is simple. He came to die for the one thing. He came to die for the prize and you are that prize.
Easter is about new life. It is about believing in the impossible and seeing the impossible happen. It’s about bearing the grief of Good Friday because Sunday is coming.
“Jesus said … ‘I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me
shall never die'” (John 11:25–26).
