The Day Someone Did Not Find What They Were Looking For

Yesterday we had our Easter Egg hunt. Before we actually start looking for the eggs I like to have a very short, like 5 minute, talk with the kids. I started it off by having them all come up for Easter Eggs. I was throwing them out at the parents and older siblings too. I let them yell and scream and even eat the candy in the egg they got. With kids it is important to make sure they can be as loud as possible, that’s the only way to know they are having a good time. Youth are good at this too, and sometimes when I preach in “big” church I think about trying to get the adults to yell in scream. Actually last Sunday they didn’t do half bad. You have to handle it a bit differently with them, but it works so long as they think there is a method to my madness.

Anyways, after they yelled and screamed and had their candy I pulled out a special yellow egg. It looked more special than the eggs they had, it had spirals and was made of better plastic. I told them it was special. Then I asked what was in the egg. They guessed a lot of different things, but no one guessed what was really in the egg, so I asked if they wanted to know what was in the egg. A few said yes, but I’m not happy with just letting kids blandly say “yeah” so we had to yell and scream as loud as we could. It was exciting, then I cracked the egg open and nothing was in the egg.

Of course they were a bit confused, maybe even disappointed. So I asked if they wanted to know why nothing was so special, and of course they were learning by then and started yelling “yes!!!!” so I told them about some young women who went looking for something one morning over 2000 years ago, but couldn’t find what they were seeking, and that was the best day of their life. At this point the kids were starting to lean in so I asked if they wanted to know what they were looking for and why they were so happy when they didn’t find it. Again they started yelling “YES!!!!”

So I told them about how they got up early in the morning and packed up expensive perfumes and other good smelling stuff because they wanted to go see Jesus one more time. He had died 3 days before and they were very sad. They walked slowly and cried softly as they went, but when they got to where his tomb was, they couldn’t find him. Then someone told them he was no longer there. They were confused but excited and ran to some of the other disciples who knew him. Those guys ran to the tomb and didn’t find Jesus either, but then Jesus started coming and talking to all these people looking for him.

I told them about how Jesus didn’t want to stay in the grave, and asked where he wanted to stay. A lot yelled “Heaven” so I told them he wanted to stay somewhere much better than Heaven. Then my son yelled “out heart.” … Smart boy I got there.

So I told them how Jesus wants to give us a great big huge heart that he can stay in, to guide us and help us.

So that’s what those young women did, they got a new heart with Jesus, because they couldn’t find him in the grave, but he found them.