The Socialist Easter Egg “Hunt”

Pam: Did I ever tell you what Kate said when she was a little girl and I asked her if there really was an Easter bunny?

Ann: No, what’d she say?

Pam: She told me the Easter Bunny must be alive and well. Otherwise, who was posing for all those chocolate rabbits she sees in the store?

Ann: Kids can be pretty funny. Last week I overheard a little boy about eight or nine years old talking with what looked like his grandmother. He was asking her if he’d get to play with his cousins at her house on Easter. She told him, “Yes, your Aunt Sara and the kids will come over right after church in the morning.”

Then he said, “You mean church is open on Easter?” You could see on her face that she wasn’t too happy about this little boy’s lack of understanding about the holiday.

Pam: That’s pretty funny. But it’s not just little kids. I knew a teenage boy once who eagerly accepted an invitation from a pretty girl to go with her to a “Passion Play”. Let me tell you, he was mighty disappointed when it turned out to be something very different than he had expected!

Ann: A woman in my church choir told us at rehearsal about something her nephew said. It just finally dawned on him that the Jesus that dies and is resurrected on Easter is the same Jesus that is born at Christmas. He told his aunt, “Now I know Jesus could do miracles! Because if he was born in December and died at Easter, how else could he grow up so big in just five months?”

Pam: I miss having little kids around to make me laugh like that. This year I tried to recapture some of that fun of Easter with little ones around. Ever since the kids were in high school we haven’t had an Easter egg hunt. Now that they’re in college I realized I really missed seeing their eyes light up as they raced around the house and yard trying to beat each other to every new discovery. So I had the great idea of putting cash in those little plastic eggs and stashing them all over. I had ones, fives, tens and even twenties!

So after church today I told the kids that they were in for a treat. I told them that there were treasures to be found and let them know what I did. I expected their eyes to light up like old times and see them racing excitedly around trying to be the one to come up with the most cash. You know how competitive they were as kids.

Ann: They must have loved that!

Pam: You’d think. But instead they looked at me like I was nuts. Kate heaved a big sigh like this was going to be a chore. Then Ross, looking equally annoyed with me says to Kate, “You want to just stumble across them throughout the day and then pool the cash and split it down the middle?”

Ann: How funny! So much for your fun, huh?

Pam: I told them that I was disappointed they weren’t scrambling around trying to find the eggs and come away with the most loot. And they said, “Gosh Mom…what would Jesus do?”

Ann: They have a point!