Growing up as a child in Yorkshire we had some interesting Easter traditions, that many in the Midlands seem to find quite strange!
One of those was egg rolling on Easter Monday. Now that might sound quite tame, but it was a very competitive sport, well within our family anyway! The tradition is one that I have passed down to my own children and we have had great fun finding the most challenging places to enable this event to take place.
A number of years ago we found ourselves in Scotland for the Easter holiday and my oldest daughter and I encouraged our friends to take part in this event. We boiled our eggs, decorated them and set off to find a suitable place.
Driving out of the town we found an ideal spot, slightly steeper and rockier than we would normally choose, but it seemed very appealing. We climbed to the top of the ridge and braced ourselves in the wonderful Scottish weather - yes strong winds and drizzle was the order of the day.
Experienced ‘egg rollers’ know that the survival of the egg is all about the technique of the throw. In the excitement, my daughter, at the grand age of four, wanted to go first. Her egg sailed out of her hand more in an upward projectory than a controlled roll. The result was very spectacular – the egg hit the ground and exploded.
The tears very quickly followed and the look of dismay on her face was heart-breaking. I remember reaching into my pocket and without thinking, placing my egg into her hand. Her tears stopped and a smile grew across her face. ‘For me?’ she asked. ‘Yes!’ was my simple response.
The Easter story is about God taking action to respond to our broken world through Jesus. His gift is for all of us and in the same way that my egg brought joy and hope to my daughter, may this Easter remind us of the hope and joy that God wishes to bring to us.
