i held the smooth, white oval in my hands yesterday.
it was just an egg.
it was just an egg that i turned over and it was just a needle that i used to punch through the fragile strong shell.
it is just an egg.
but i couldn't get the image out of my mind of what i had just done.
as i blew in one end and watched the clear and the yellow clump out into the bowl on the table, my thoughts kept turning back to Him...
but He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His wounds we are healed.
isaiah 53:5
i laid out the glasses filled with color this morning as little ones crowded around.
empty vessels filled with water that would change an ordinary white egg into a thing of simple beauty.
i watched my girls as they carefully submerged each orb and became fascinated with the transformation happening before their eyes and under their fingers...
and i couldn't help but think of Him,
do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? we were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
romans 6:3-4
and elias...my sweet, happy baby boy grinned at me...
until he realized that my hands would continue to hold his egg-crushing ones in my own.
which is when he slipped down off of my lap and quietly picked up his orange ikea plate...
and threw it at the eggs that were drying.
and i thought of us.
you...me and the brokenness that enters in and leaves us gaping; that leaves us questioning Him and His plan.
the ragged edges that turn tender and raw and seem so very, very unfix-able.
i am weary with my moaning;
every night i flood my bed with tears,
i drench my couch with my weeping.
psalm 6:6
i placed the last of the dyed eggs in the tray to dry and told the girls how proud i was of them.
i lifted my camera to take one final photo when i heard Him speak to my heart.
words that had been playing at the edges of my mind since that first egg dipped in...
words that give hope in the midst of life-changing moments.
words that reminded me of one of the greatest gifts He gave when He gave up His life on that tree.
He gave us the offer of new life.
new. life.
a changed life.
and there is nothing more beautiful than a life that has been placed in Jesus Christ and changed.
He was pierced,
so we could be made new.
therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 corinthians 5:17
