"Do you want a trophy?" my granddaughter, Allison, asked me in an aside as she tallied the winners of her Easter egg hunt event. "Did I win one?" I asked, and she nodded. I guess she was checking the level of my participation enthusiasm. This grown-up granddaughter could have a career as an event planner, I thought. She had thrown this extravaganza for young and old alike on the family farm property.
It had been a perfect Easter Sunday (Resurrection Day, I like to call it) with a packed-out congregation stuffed into our little church that morning, what with visiting families of the members and those who somehow manage to make it to church at Easter (or Christmas) if at no other time, and a moving message by our recently bereaved pastor. Hearts were touched when he mentioned his late wife and our dear friend from time to time, as he is understandably apt to do these days.
We were out in plenty of time for me to pick up the food I had made to take to our son's house to add to their family feast. Why can menus and food prep be so fraught with doubt and vacillation for me? I had planned to get a turkey breast to supplement my daughter-in-law's ham dinner, then reconsidered and made a hen with dumplings. I had stewed and de-boned the chicken the night before, planning to add the dumplings in the morning and take them to her house in a crockpot set on warm until lunch time.
Panic set in when the crockpot was not where it was supposed to be. No amount of searching revealed it, but it was probably stored in the basement from our move last summer! I had undercooked the dumplings a little to finish in the crockpot, and now it was time for church with my plans foiled. They went into the fridge to be rewarmed on site, and thankfully, they were just right!
After adding cubed fresh pineapple to cottage cheese, I looked online and found you were only supposed to use cooked or canned pineapple for that! My strawberries I had cut up and sugared to set overnight looked soggy and pale! And the shortcakes I had baked tasted disappointedly like biscuits. Oh well, maybe it was just my dulled sense of taste that didn't let me relish the meal, but I did relish the fellowship!
The picture-perfect event in the country followed. Children were scattered like bright little blooms on the deep green, new grass slope where Allison had set up a kids' egg hunt. Doting parents hovered over the smaller tots and their baskets, enjoying it as much as the kids. This was a farm outing for them, made perfect by viewing the small horde of new chicks in the shed and peering at the eggs in the nests of our white leghorns.
Then while the kids went on a hayride conducted by our son, the adults were ushered down the hill for the "Extreme Egg Hunt." My husband and I tagged along, then I got into the spirit of the game when I spotted a bright egg at the base of a gnarled old tree. Most of the young adults had swarmed to the other side of the hill, so I garnered a basket of eggs in no time as one led to another. Thus my trophy for fourth place!
The day culminated as we watched the final episode of The Bible mini-series later that night. Though I couldn't watch the crucifixion part, the portrayal of Paul and the other apostles was riveting. I was moved to tears at the realization of their steadfastness and zeal in spreading the gospel, despite horrible persecution and martyrs' deaths. The faithful presence of Jesus was apparent several times in cinematic depiction, stretching the imagination to comprehend the reality of what actually happened.
Paul's concluding declaration as recorded in II Timothy 4:7 is, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (8) Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." The best trophy of all!
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