Lenten Ponderings—Easter Egg Hunt!
Have you ever pondered Easter Eggs as a Lenten or spiritual practice? Our EASTER EGG HUNT set for Saturday, April 8 at noon with hot dogs and more, reflects recent traditions, and is a great way to connect with the community—invite neighbors and friends! Share this note with whomever you can!
But decorating eggs far predates Christianity, and NOT as just a children’s thing! Across cultures has often represented new life and fertility, but with the Christian adoption of the tradition, HOLLOWED decorated eggs also represents the empty tomb of the Resurrection, with red dye being most common where Christianity started the tradition in Mesopotamia, thence to Eastern Europe and Siberia, representing the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.
In some traditions, the painstaking time and detail put into painting eggs provides meditative and prayerful focus, a kind of kinetic prayer. Have you ever tried it? You start with raw eggs, poke a hole in each end with a pin or small drill, and blow out in insides through the holes. When I’ve tried, some have worked, some haven’t—so be ready for scrambled eggs or omelets!
Some swish around and scramble the egg innards first with a longer metal wire to make it easier to blow out—straightening out the kinds of wire tools that often come with commercial dying kits works well. Emptying the egg first is the secret to the egg not spoiling for the long painting, and even keeping the egg for years, or as long as you can keep it from being crushed! The colors and symbols painted on the egg can be guides to the meditative prayer you use while painting, and the finished product can be an icon for years to come of a powerful time of prayer, or of God’s physical presence experienced through the “sacramental” use of the egg.
If you do give it a try, I’d love to see the final product of your painted egg, and hear about your prayer experience through the process!
I look forward to seeing you and your friends at the egg hunt, and it would be extra exciting if you brought a painted egg to share! Keep being a blessing—Pastor Jim