The Easter Egg Tree
By Sylvia Reese, MOPS International Area Coordinator
There is something about celebrating Easter when spring is just beginning that feels so good. I remember the special things I did as a child to celebrate Easter, including Easter egg hunts at church, painting Easter eggs, making Easter baskets and anticipating the little chocolate eggs that would be in that basket on Easter morning.
Why eggs? What do eggs have to do with Easter? Well, from a very long time ago, eggs have been considered the seed of life. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, how he was raised from the dead. The Easter egg represents that new life.
When we were growing up, my mother would help my sister and I make an Easter Egg Tree every year. She took raw eggs, made holes in each end and blew out the inside. The empty shells were then rinsed out and left to dry. When the eggs were void of all moisture, my sister and I would gather our favorite decorating materials: sequins, feathers, yarn, lace, felt, stickers, paper punch holes, glue and paint. We had a great time letting our imaginations run wild as we turned those hollow eggs into works of art!
It was just the right project for two little girls who were four years apart in age, because we could decorate those eggs to our own abilities and interests, simply or very elaborately. Once the eggs were decorated, we would glue a loop of yarn to one end of each egg. Then my mother would go into our yard and cut some forsythia branches with lots of little unopened buds on them. She would put them in a large vase of water and we would hang our eggs all over those branches — taa-daa — our Easter Egg Tree! Over the next few days, my sister and I would excitedly watch to see all those tiny buds open up into bright yellow flowers, making our ‘tree’ even more beautiful and a great illustration of new life.
Visit a local church to learn more about finding new life in Jesus this Easter season. And to learn more about Easter and the meaning behind this holiday, download this free Easter Resource.
Happy Easter from all of us at MOPS International! | 
