The Easter Egg Hunt
by Bonnie Anderson

It is time to celebrate Easter – Resurrection Day. Easter brings with it some fun activities for families. Our family is very competitive. We compete for everything from games to who is dirtiest after yard work. After our last bout of flu, there was even debate over who was the sickest – is that determined by how high the fever or how bad the nausea (I won’t go into how that is measured).

This competitiveness began in our children’s early years and is sadly linked with the Easter Egg Hunt. While most people were buying their kids shiny new shoes, we were getting ours running shoes. A good fitting shoe is imperative for a successful egg hunt. You can’t be slowed down by having your brother’s hand-me-downs fall off at a critical time in the race. Shoes were of primary importance, followed closely by the proper receptacle for the eggs. An Easter basket won’t do – the eggs easily fall out. It may not look great, but the plastic grocery sack works best. It’s deep, light and easy to handle.

With shoes on and sack in hand, training would begin. We would play Red Light/Green Light to polish their quick start and stop skills. Then we would scatter eggs over the backyard and do an Easter egg drill. We trained our children to spot the areas that were highly saturated with eggs and hit them first. Finally we would line them up for the actual drill, reminding them that we were out here to have fun. It didn’t matter who found the most eggs. At the sounding of the whistle they would be off. They would descend on the yard like the troops landing on Normandy – fast and accurate, leaving no eggs behind. They were ready!

After a good night’s sleep and a hardy breakfast, we would head to the park for the competition, I mean Easter Egg Hunt. The park would be crawling with parents trying to maneuver their children to the start line. The little ones were given a head start. They would delight in the first egg they would find. Gradually all of the children were in on the fun. It looked like the locusts invading Egypt – they covered the ground and devoured all the eggs in the land.

In short order we were on our way home, happy and tired from the big event. My children never complained about how many eggs they collected or if they won anything. They simply enjoyed being there. Sometimes they won prizes, sometimes they didn’t, but they always had fun. My kids have taught me a lot, like keeping the simple things in life simple and just trying to run a good race. After all, that’s really the main thing – running a good race and keeping your eyes fixed on what lies ahead, not a hollow egg with candy in it, but a full life being lived for Christ because of what He did for us on the cross.

“…and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter or our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1b-2 (NIV)