Simple Joy

   As I was watching my younger brothers eagerly search for Easter eggs in our garden this year, it brought back a lot of memories from my Grandmother's house. Watching my Mom recreating these memories for them brought a sense of happiness to me and an allowance for the boys to do something that all of us had gotten to experience as small children with our Grandparents.
   I learned a lesson from this simple example as well. The simplicity of their joy at finding each new egg reminded me of how symbolic hunting for eggs on Easter can be. This hunt reminds me of our journey through life. Searching and finding is our spiritual growth, and each new egg is how God blesses us over and over again.
  As I have done so many times, some neglect to find out what the egg contains. It is a moment's joy to find the egg and enjoy the praise you get from finding it, but this is not our reward. As Christian's we often find God's blessings as exciting treasures and then fail to remember them when life throws us through hard loops and trials to endure.

The joy on my brother's face when he picked up each egg reminds me of how grateful we are when God "chooses" to bless us. Just as a child easily forgets the excitement, Christians are often guilty of forgetting what was done for us as well and many of us sadly prefer to stay this way.

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

-Romans 5:8 (KJV)-

In other ways, an egg hunt symbolizes a Christian remembering what Christ did for them on the cross over 2,000 years ago. On Easter morning as we sit in comfortable chairs with our coffee in our right hand and phone in our left hand with our Bible app, we get caught up in the emotions of the moment. Our facebook will be filled to the gill with Christian posters depicting the agony of Christ's death and suffering. The next day is Monday and we go back to posting selfies and silliness. We forget easily what was done for us...just as a child will forget. Christ died for us, but don't let what happened next slip your mind!

The emotions of Easter may be over, but true joy is just beginning!