"It's Empty!" - Lessons Learned from a Child

For the first time in three years, our extended family was able to gather for an Easter celebration. It was a sweet time of fellowship with 39 family members present. We were all just glad to finally be together again after such a long time.

Like other families, we were quarantined in 2020, and then, several of our older family members were sick during 2021. Then, last year, our sons were going through a stem cell transplant that required an entirely different kind of family quarantine.

So, this year’s Resurrection celebration was even more special to us – after all we have been through as a family over the last three years. It was also bittersweet though because an entire generation of our family was absent this year; they have all moved to heaven for the ultimate resurrection morning celebration!

Instead of five generations of family, this year we only had four – and those of us in the now “oldest” generation felt the weight of their absence tremendously. We knew we had to get this right! We had to continue to teach each generation of our family about Jesus and find ways to tie us all together despite the vast distance between us in miles and age.

We were determined to carry on as usual, but we added a few twists to the party!

The day included a huge family portrait session with individual family pictures. We also had an Easter egg hunt for the little ones in our family. We allowed the older kids, ages ten and up, to hide the candy-filled eggs for the littles.

They had a neighbor’s dog joyously join in their fun. She truly thought they were hiding the colorful eggs for her to find and fetch. It was fun to watch from the sidelines as the preteen kids tried to wrestle the eggs from her and get them safely hidden.

Now, the teacher in me could not resist the ironic lesson of that moment.

I think God was teaching them how easily the enemy can distract us and get us off track. For the truth is, all sin is fun – at first. But just like the ruined candy within the eggs our friendly neighborhood dog destroyed, the results of sin leave us as empty and damaged as a few of those eggs (James 1:15, KJV).

Of course, any real Southern family celebration has some good barbeque, and ours was delicious. But that was definitely not all we had; there were tables and tables of food and desserts. There’s a lesson there too – on gluttony. It’s actually a lesson many of us Christians like to ignore. But again, the wages of sin are death and destruction. Or in the case of gluttony, disease, loss of mobility and strength, and maybe even early death (Romans 6:23; Philippians 3:19, KJV).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I realize that even Jesus had times of celebration, and I imagine the food flowed as abundantly then as now. I do not think an occasional round of overeating will kill us, but our body is the temple of the Holy One. And 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 tells us to care for it accordingly.

So, after our time of fellowship around the table, we cleaned up a bit and prepared to let the kids dye a few eggs – 10 dozen, to be exact. (And at today’s price, this was an expensive lesson.) But with almost a dozen teachers in our crew, the egg dyeing on such a large scale went pretty smoothly. We all had a blast, kids and adults alike.

But our youngest family member had the most fun of all. It never crossed his mind to look for another color. The cup of blue dye was right in front of him, so he joyfully dyed his entire dozen eggs a bright royal blue. He proudly showed everyone the signs of his hard work and success with two totally blue hands. (This lesson is obvious: Do every task joyfully, as unto the Lord.)

Alright, if you have read this far into my blog, I imagine many of you are chastising us for the use of eggs. Trust me; we get it. We know all about their pagan symbolism.

Instead of defending our “egg-travagant” use of eggs, let me ask you a few questions.

First of all, do you believe that Jesus is able to redeem someone who has been so deep in sin as to have even worshiped Satan? Do you think God is able to take that pagan individual and use that person for the original purpose for which he or she was created – which is to glorify God? Also, who created the egg? Who designed the entire process of reproduction using the egg? And if you get right down to it, isn’t the egg the ultimate symbol of new life? 

It is no wonder the enemy wanted to take God’s creation and warp it for his own twisted uses. So, the best way to thwart his plans is to take back God’s original design for the egg and teach it to our children.

And that is exactly what we did next in our family celebration right before our throwdown, all ages, no-holds-barred family egg hunt. We sat the children down together, all of them, ages 2-12. Then, one of the older kids read the resurrection story from the Bible, using the resurrection Egg story kit.

One by one, the kids chose one of the brightly colored plastic eggs from the kit. But by the time our youngest member got to choose his egg, all that was left was the white one. He was not the least bit deterred. In fact, he was just thrilled to be a part of the celebration. (There’s a BIG lesson there too!)

We all listened as the biblical account of Christ was told, moment by moment, beginning with Jesus riding into the city on a donkey to the shouts of welcome and palm branches strewn before Him. And as the story progressed, each child opened his specified egg to illustrate the lesson with 11 tiny trinkets.

We saw the young donkey, the palm branches, the cup, the coins, the whip, the nails, the crown of thrones, the cross, the tombstone, and other symbols of the resurrection story. Each child sat still and enraptured, waiting for their cue, even the youngest little guy.

Then, the story came down to the part where the angel rolled the stone away. And my granddaughter Ella paused in her reading to prepare her tiny cousin for the dramatic climax, “Alright, Trace, you’re next. Get ready!”

Trace sat up straight and tall, holding his plain white egg and waiting for her command.

She read the ending Scripture with purpose and passion, “And an angel told them, ‘Jesus is not here. He is risen!’”

But Trace needed no further cue. He opened his egg and triumphantly held it up for all to see while shouting with pure joy, “It empty!”

Needless to say, his precious smile and innocent exuberance brought us all to tears. And just as the Bible promised, a little child led us – straight to that empty tomb, reminding us of the greatest lesson of all from the greatest love story ever told.

Hallelujah! Jesus is risen, alive forevermore!