Guest column: Hunting for the greatest prize egg

Published 10:00 am Sunday, April 21, 2019

There was one egg out there that I knew was the best and I had to find it. I was a child hunting eggs at my grandmother’s house.

There were three types of eggs my family hid.

The first were those gross, hard-boiled eggs that had been dyed. I never wanted to eat those things. The thought of that dye on them and then them sitting outside for a while made them not appetizing. My cousins and I usually chucked them over a fence at some cattle.

The second kind were the normal eggs that usually had candy or chocolate in them. There were plenty of those eggs out there.

But then there was the prize egg. My family put money in one egg and hid it somewhere on the property. And it was our goal to find that egg. The others were nice, but that one was the prize we wanted to find. I don’t remember for certain, but I don’t think I ever found it in all my years. One of my cousins always claimed the prize.

It is Easter season and while hunting eggs is fun, Easter is the time Christians celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. It looked like sin, death, and the devil had won, but early on Sunday morning, God raised Jesus from the dead, defeating all three of those enemies.

Jesus rose from the dead that we could have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But even beyond that, Jesus rose from the dead that He might be our Prize. He told a parable in Matthew 13:44. He said the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure a man found in hidden in a field. The treasure was so valuable that the man sold everything he had and bought that field so he could possess that treasure.

The treasure is Jesus. Forgiveness of sins and eternal life are wonderful gifts that God gives. But the biggest prize that Christians get at the resurrection is forever knowing and loving Jesus.

There are a lot of eggs hidden in the field of our lives. We can make our lives about a lot of things. Some of them are worthless, like those gross, hard-boiled eggs that I chucked at cattle. Some of them are genuinely good things. They have sweet treats inside of them, but they are not the best thing.

There is one prize egg out there that we can center our lives on and He is Jesus. Jesus came to die and rise from the dead, not only so that we might have eternal life, but that we would have eternal life and joy with Him. So center your life on Jesus.

I may never have found that prize egg at my Grandma’s house. But Jesus is a greater prize egg.

Aaron Fraiser is the pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Chula.