There is often great beauty in simple things. Take the egg, for instance.

Even a plain white egg is pleasingly shaped, adorably sized, and a perfect blend of form and function.

Add some decoration, and you’ve got a small masterpiece.

Countries such as Ukraine have made an art out of decorating eggs as an Easter tradition.

Eggs “decorated” by God have a beauty all their own. There’s a charm to naturally speckled bird eggs that is irresistible.

You’d like to keep them intact forever, enjoying their freckled surface and gentle colours for as long as possible.

But if the eggs perpetually remained in the same state and were never broken open, you’d miss out on an even greater joy: you’d never get to see the chick emerge.

Sometimes you have to let go of something you love to receive an ever greater blessing.

This is something the disciples had to learn at the first Easter.

Jesus had tried to give them a heads-up that He was going to be killed. He was speaking of His impeding death when He told them:

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.” (John 12:24)

In order for people’s sins to be forgiven and for them to begin life anew, God’s only Son had to die. It was necessary for the “shell” of Jesus’ body to be broken.

The disciples had a hard time coming to grips with what Jesus was saying. He also told them that if He went away, something would come that would be even better for them. This was difficult for them to understand: what could be better than having Jesus with them?

“But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:6-7)

The disciples were fixated on wanting things to remain the same, but God had a better plan in mind.

What happened three days after Jesus’ crucifixion was earth-shaking.

Christ rose victorious over death and the grave, in a glorious body that could never die again. Through our belief in His atoning sacrifice, we, too, can one day have glorified bodies and spend eternity in Heaven with Him.

Not only that, after Jesus ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Now, instead of being restricted to one place on earth and one time in history, Jesus lives inside each believer in the form of the second member of the Trinity.

After the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples finally understood what He had been trying to tell them, and they were never the same again. They proclaimed His message of salvation with great joy and boldness to whoever would listen.

Perhaps you, too, have been clinging to something, unwilling to let it go. Maybe you’ve been enmeshed in a life of sin and hesitant to make a break from it.

But if you remain attached to lesser things, you’ll never be able to experience the greater things that God has in store for you, if you’d only put your trust in Him. You’d miss out on the blessings of forgiveness, restoration, abundant life, and fellowship with your Creator.

As any egg can tell you, sometimes one version of life has to end for new life to begin!

“I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].”

john 10:10

© 2023 Lori J. Cartmell. All rights reserved.