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The Hunt is Over

I love Easter time. It brings back so many memories of church family coming together for food, fun, and fellowship. We would all dress up in our Sunday best. The girls were eager to show off their colorful dresses covered with lace and frills. Even the boys cleaned up and presented themselves as freshly scrubbed little pigs, ready for the fair. The church pews creaked as family after family filled the pews, and soon everyone was bellowing at the top of their lungs, “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes.” Everything seemed right and perfect on Easter morning. No one even minded that Mrs. Roger’s hat was blocking the view of the preacher for most of the service.

The day was too special to go home after the rousing sermon. Everyone simply moved outside where little specks of hot pink, blue, and purple dotted the church lawn. The new plastic eggs today are fine, but you haven’t lived until you’ve heard the crunch of a stepped-on hard-boiled egg or sent one flying through the air at your buddy across the way. Something about those colored, hard-boiled eggs made them taste better than eggs eaten the other 364 days of the year.

I remember one wild egg hunt where all the children were racing around the church yard, looking for those hard-boiled treasures. After fifteen minutes of searching through clovers, under rocks, and in Deacon Jim’s overall pockets, the adults called a time out to count the eggs and proclaimed they had all been found. One little boy yelled, “But there might be more just waiting to be found!” and that started another stampede of brand-new Easter shoes as the hunt kicked back into gear. The adults shook their heads in disbelief, knowing the kids at this point were searching in vain. The hunt was over.

When you think about it, isn’t that really the whole message of Easter? From the book of Genesis throughout the Old Testament, God promised a Messiah who would bring salvation, peace, hope, and so much more. In each generation, people searched for the Promised One. Finally, as another Easter favorite proclaims, “God sent His Son, they called Him Jesus. He came to love, heal and forgive.” Through His miracles and through His message, He identified Himself as the long-awaited Messiah and died on a cross to demonstrate His love. As if this weren’t enough, three days later, on what I imagine was a gloriously beautiful Easter morning, Christ rose again, proclaiming to the world, “The hunt is over!”

This good news makes me ready to celebrate, but it also reminds me of that Easter egg hunt so many years ago. While we are dressing up in our Easter best, there are those who continue to look for “more” in this life, and their search is proving to be in vain. Easter provides you and me with the perfect opportunity to remind these folks that there is no need to continue searching; Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The grave is empty, our Savior lives, and the hunt for a Messiah is over!