Easter Eggstras

I embrace and revel in the true meaning of Easter as much as the next redeemed sinner. Soon we’ll be singing “Christ the Lord Is Risen Again,” and lifting our alleluias high to the One who sacrificed all to save us all. But in the days leading up to Easter, I have to confess that I enjoy all the secular sensations of the season, too—what we might think of as the Easter eggstras.

At the top of my list are the bunnies. I’ve loved rabbits since I raised them in junior high and showed them at the county fair. There are a few decorative rabbits tucked here and there around our house all year ‘round, but many more hop out of storage when it’s time to decorate for Easter.

When we were a newly blended family thirty plus years ago, I found a family of rabbits in a catalog with a mom, a dad, two boys and two girls—just like us at that time! They’ve taken up residence in our dining room every Easter since—with only one bunny ear broken and glued back in place. Fat rabbits, skinny rabbits, a joyous Rosenthal rabbit purchased in Germany that once adorned the christening cakes of both my boys as infants, bunny cakes with jelly bean bowties—all bring me joy each year.

And then there are the eggs! We actually have an egg tree which takes about as much time to decorate as a Christmas tree, and a collection of alabaster eggs gathered from many different places on long ago travels. I’ve loved dying Easter eggs with children and grandchildren through the years. Last year I died them all yellow so each person at Easter dinner could create an Easter emoji! Early morning Easter egg hunts with baskets full of colored eggs and day-after-egg-salad are also eggstras I’ve enjoyed in years past.

What else? Little girls in new Easter dresses and bonnets and dapper little boys in bowties and Sunday shoes. A spiral-cut ham with all the trimmings for Easter dinner—all these things create memories that grow more precious as time goes by.

I know the Lord wants us to appreciate all of His creation, so I think it’s fine if we enjoy the Easter eggstras—so long as we don’t forget the main reason for all the joy and celebration. “He has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:6). That’s what we acknowledge on Easter, and as we embrace the truth that Jesus came to close the gap between us and God that we might have eternal life, we have more than enough reason to celebrate Easter—with all its eggstras.