I like to mark the changing seasons with meaningful symbols. Some symbols have obvious religious connotations, like the wreath and candles that come out in time for that First Sunday of Advent. Some connect more with nature's rhythms, like my beloved cloth stuffed pumpkins that I place on my Grandmother's buffet in autumn. For Easter I bring out five beautiful hand painted wooden eggs that are a joy to behold. I place them in a nest of Easter grass in the center of my prayer table, and smile every time I see their beauty.
Eggs are an enduring symbol of Easter - new life - new possibilities. But this morning I realized that, for me, the intact egg is a symbol only of possibility - it doesn't become a symbol of new life or emergent life until the chick pecks its way out of the egg.
I remember being told long ago that if you try to free the chick from the egg, you can do more harm than good (so said a grade school teacher). It is the act of fighting to be free from the confines of the egg that gives the chick the strength for life. It must peck and push free of the egg to be free indeed. Ditto for butterflies, that other abiding symbol of Easter. When the time is right, the egg or chrysalis that isn't broken open from within soon becomes an unopened tomb.
Sometimes, when stuck, God answers the prayer "help!" by removing the obstacle. Other times, we need to peck, push, and fight our way free, with God answering our prayer through unexpected grace and strength to aid us as we break the shell from the inside out.
I awoke before dawn feeling the shell pressing against me, and an unexpected flush of grace and strength.
Let the pecking begin!
Moving into Easter,
Kim
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