Festivals and Anniversaries

As I sat having lunch before running out of the door for a home visit I looked at a bowl that has been filled with eggs.  These eggs have been beautifully and lovingly painted by artists.  Some much more proficiently than others.  Some of the eggs have been gifted to me, some tediously painted by me but in the midst of them there is one that was made for me the Easter of 1993.  It was made by a young man, whose family I had been living with as I finished seminary and ordination loomed on my horizon.  The egg, has been carefully wrapped and packed many times through the twenty three years.  It has moved from town to town, survived a year of storage and then moved halfway across Canada to our current location.  It is not as professionally painted as many of the other gifted eggs are but it holds significant meaning and is a treasured memento.

After all of this time the colours have started to fade, as it was colouring leads that were used instead of paint. The egg is filled with ordination related messages, to "go and preach the gospel", a stole and the date of the upcoming ordination to the diaconate.  As simple and thoughtful as that gift was it is the most personalized egg in my small collection.  It was a thoughtful gift of a young man just entering his teenage years to someone about to take a gigantic step in life and in faith.

I have not seen that young man for these many years but he holds a warm place and a special memory in my heart.  Each Holy Saturday I do a small amount of decoration to mark the Easter season.  First and foremost is to carefully unwrap those eggs that have been carefully preserved and then at the very top of the bowl goes this very special gift.  This May 2nd will mark a twenty third anniversary to ordination, there have been many changes and challenges over that period of time but the message on the egg remains constant and true.   It sits as a reminder of the Easter hope and challenge with its resurrection drawings and the message... well the message is still just as important as it was when the egg was gifted to me and that is to simply "go and share the good news."