My friend told me a story that I’ll never forget. It’s about an eight-year old boy named Philip who was born with Downs Syndrome.
In Philip’s Sunday school class several weeks before Easter, his teacher introduced a special project. She gave every child a plastic egg and explained that they were to go outside, find a symbol for new life and put it into the egg. The children responded enthusiastically.
Back in the classroom the eggs were opened one at a time with each child explaining the what they had put inside. In the first egg was a pretty flower; in the next a beautiful butterfly, green grass was in a third, and so on. The children “oohed” and “aahed” as each of the eggs were opened.
0
0
1
8
52
The Center
1
1
59
14.0
96
800×600
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;}
Finally the last egg was opened—there was nothing in it. “That’s stupid!“ said one child. Another grumbled, “Someone didn’t do it right!” The teacher felt a tap on her side. It was Philip. He said,
“That’s mine, and I did do right! It’s empty because the tomb was empty."
There was an unusual silence. And from that time on Philip was accepted as part of the group.
Philip continued to struggle with many physical problems. That summer he picked up an infection which most children could easily have shaken off. But Philip’s weak body couldn’t and a few weeks later, he died. At his funeral nine 8 year-olds came with their teacher and brought a gift and placed it near his coffin. Their unusual gift of love to Phillip wasn’t flowers. It was an empty egg, now a symbol to them of new life and hope. It was Phillip who had helped his friends see the wonderful hope in the message of Easter.
The empty tomb reminds each of us of the promise that whoever receives Christ will be raised to eternal life. Jesus never promised that we would not die. His promised something much greater. He promised that, like Him, we will not remain dead!
“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.” (1 Co 15:20-21)
Add a Comment