Dear Congregation,
I like to do a little decorating for the holidays, and so a couple of weeks before Easter, I’ll unpack my Easter things. Some of these colorful ceramic eggs and rabbits I bought over the past fifty years. It’s like seeing old friends when I free them from their wrappings. Others were made by my kids when they were younger, and are precious because of who made them. Into this category fall the “egg creatures” made by my artistic son Brian when he was in 7th or 8thgrade.
He followed directions given in one of the women’s magazines and made delightfully whimsical creatures by first blowing out the contents of eggs so they were hollow, then taking a hole punch and punching dots out of colored construction paper. These dots were then glued like over-lapping scales to cover the eggs. Then ears, eyes, tails, etc. were made and pasted on. I have a green egg dinosaur, a white rabbit with a cotton ball tail, a kangaroo with a Joey in her pouch, a crowing rooster, a pink pig with a curly tail, and a blue whale wearing sunglasses. As you can imagine, it took Brian a long time to make each one, but he persevered. His creations looked exactly like the examples on the magazine cover, because he followed the instructions carefully.
We, too, have been given an Easter example to follow, to make, not a craft piece, but a life. Jesus Christ is the original to whom we look as the perfect one to imitate. Tiny mosaic-like pieces, not of colored paper, but representing the words and deeds we have chosen to say or do, cover our inward being, and make us into who we are. How can we be Easter creatures, Easter people, bearing the joy and hope of the resurrection to a Good Friday world? How can we clearly show forth the love of God in Christ for everyone? These are good and challenging questions with which to challenge ourselves as Easter comes once again with its marvelous message of hope.
May God bless each of you at Easter and always. See you in church!
In Christ love.
Pastor Candy Thomas
Interim Pastor
Christ Congregational United Church of Christ