Dear Friends,
There is a beautiful old story about a Sunday School teacher who asked the children in his class to bring plastic eggs to church with them on Easter Sunday. And he asked them to fill each one with something that symbolized the message of the resurrection. The day came, and the teacher took each child’s egg in turn, opening it and making a point of looking at the contents and explaining how these illustrated the new life that springs forth at Easter, and explaining and underlining its meaning.
One child had a tiny flower, and the teacher spoke of the new life this represented. Another egg contained a hand drawn picture of Christ and the teacher spoke about that. Another had a small nail, and the point was made about the nails of the cross. Another had a round pebble that represented the stone that had been rolled away from the tomb.
But the teacher was dumbfounded when he opened the egg of seven-year-old Brian, a child with learning difficulties, because it contained nothing at all. But he needn’t have worried for Brian himself spoke up and announced, ‘It is full of emptiness, just like the tomb of Jesus’. What better way to illustrate the empty tomb?
But there is more, for the fact that the tomb is empty shows us that that the risen Christ is no longer confined to time and space. It shows us that he can be everywhere all the time. As Christians, we rejoice in the miracle of the resurrection, for because of it sin and death have been defeated for all time. We also rejoice in the fact that because the tomb is empty, we can call on the Risen Christ at any time, for he is always with us and available to us through his Spirit. What a wonderful season this is!
CHRIST IS RISEN – HE IS RISEN INDEED – ALLELUIA!
With love and blessings,
Marion
Categories: Minister's Blog