Even Then
An
Easter Story
There
had never been any Easter eggs for Emily. Her
father had died when she was only a baby, and she and her older sister, Hannah,
were being raised by their mother. Money
had always been in short supply in their humble apartment, and Hannah had never
made a fuss about Easter eggs. So
Mother had used the few pennies she had in her purse to buy a little chocolate
bunny for each of the girls.
But
this year, during the days before Easter, Emily’s friends at school were all
talking about coloring eggs and then finding them on Easter morning after the
Easter Bunny had come during the night and hidden them.
Emily wished more than anything that she and Hannah could color eggs on
Saturday, the day before Easter.
“Please,
Jesus, have the Easter Bunny hide some of our eggs here in our apartment
Saturday night.”
“What’s
this all about?” Mother asked, surprised by this sudden request while Emily
was saying her bedtime prayers.
“Easter
eggs!” Emily answered excitedly. “Don’t
you know that the Easter Bunny hides colored eggs in the homes of good boys and
girls on Easter eve?”
“Well,
yes, I know about that all right. But
you and Hannah have always gotten candy bunnies.”
“Yes,
but this Easter couldn’t we buy some eggs for us to color on Saturday
afternoon? Couldn’t we PLEEZE,
Mom?”
“Oh,
I suppose so,” Mother answered. “But
there won’t be any candy bunnies.”
“That’s
OK,” Emily answered with a big smile. “I’d
rather have the eggs.”
And
so, Saturday morning, Mother sent Hannah to the store to buy a dozen eggs.
But when Hannah returned she was crying bitterly.
“What’s
happened?” Mother asked in alarm, noticing the big scrapes on Hannah’s
knees.
“I
fell on the way home and landed right on the carton of eggs.
Every one is broken!”
“Hannah,
how COULD you?” Emily cried, tears squirting from her eyes.
“Emily!”
Mother scolded. “Is that all you
care about is a few eggs? Can’t
you see that Hannah’s been hurt?”
Emily
immediately felt guilty and selfish.
“I’m
sorry, Hannah,” she said through her tears.
“Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring his OWN eggs Easter
morning.”
“No,
that isn’t how it works,” Mother snapped.
“Hannah, come into the kitchen. We’ll
get those scrapes cleaned up.”
That
night while she was saying her bedtime prayers, Emily secretly said a little
prayer to Jesus. She prayed that the
Easter Bunny would hide some of his OWN eggs the night before Easter
morning, even though Mother had said that he always used the ones colored by
children on Easter eve.
The
next morning Emily was awake early. She
crept around the apartment, looking in all the likely hiding places.
But there were no eggs anywhere.
“I
must have been naughty,” she muttered to herself.
“Maybe it’s because I was so mean to Hannah.”
“Open
the curtains, would you?” Hannah asked sleepily.
Emily
pulled the curtain cord, and as the curtains parted, a beautiful shaft of light
filled the room. She looked out of
their third story window, into the top of a tree growing outside.
And then she gave a shriek. For
there, nestled in the crotch of the tree, was a nest with three beautiful, tiny
blue eggs in it!
Mother
came rushing into the bedroom and asked what was wrong.
“Look,
Mummy, look!” Emily cried, pointing out of the window.
“It’s the Easter eggs I prayed for last night.”
“You
prayed for eggs last night?” Mother asked.
“Yes,
I prayed in my mind to Jesus. And he
forgave me for being mean to Hannah, and he answered my prayer!”
“Jesus
always answers our prayers on Easter,” Hannah said in a sleepy voice.
“Even
if we’ve been naughty?” Emily marveled.
Mother
smiled and kissed her on the top of her head.
“Even
then,” she softly affirmed.
“Even then.”