I DEMAND EGGS!

All the eggs are gone! Not a bunny rabbit in sight! And I’m mad about it!

Okay, so I’m not mad. I’m actually laughing out loud at the moment (insert emoticon here?). But a certain inconsistency has grabbed my attention that Christians ought to at least pretend to be bothered by. A playful protest over pastel eggs might be just about the perfect way to celebrate the season we’re in.

You see, we had to look at Halloween masks for weeks and then Santa suits for months. We heard songs about snow for an awful duration without a flake in sight, all in preparation for a Christmas America celebrates more at the register than at the creche. I have seen even today lights still stapled under gutters and a wreath perched above a garage just blocks from my home. We can’t seem to get greenery soon enough or keep it for too long. Christmas, even the heathen acknowledge, is a season worth taking our time with.

Well, I’m a Christian, and a weird historical sort at that! Christmas is wonderful, but wonderful precisely in light of that for which it was preparation. As a Christian I celebrated the Christmas hope, witnessed the Epiphany urgency, agonized in the Lenten fast, observed the silence of Maundy Thursday and wept at Good Friday. Sunday was Easter! I opened my eyes to see the bright dawn of the Resurrection of Jesus! He came in order to raise us up to life again after our deathly Fall, and here he is: the Lord is risen indeed!

One puny week later and the plastic grass and painted eggs and fuzzy bunnies (ancient pagan fertility symbols baptized long ago as heralds of the new life we have in Jesus) are gone. Gone! Had my wife not made a basket to hide within the safety of our Christian home, every vestige of Easter joy would be swept from sight, a grand cultural denial that anything has changed since last (Holy) Saturday night.

Well, fellow odd, historical Christians, Easter doesn’t end for several weeks. We remember that Easter is a season too (and a longer one than Christmas by our watch)! We ought to be painting things pink and yellow and blue! We should be hiding eggs in people’s file drawers and wearing bunny ears to important conferences! We should be greeting strangers at Starbucks with a great “He is risen!” and look at them happily, confusedly when they don’t know the return greeting.

My wife dyed eggs with five-year-olds today. Now THAT’s some Easter cheer!

He is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed!

Now pass me a Cadbury Creme Egg and let’s do this thing right.