Cracking the Easter Egg Code

Easter egg hunts are a tradition of the season. Few things are more exciting to children than vaulting into the back yard and searching the premises for those plastic ovoids, especially when there is the promise of a treat inside. My grandkids beg me to hide the eggs over and over again, never mind that they tend to be in the same locations every time. It’s the thrill of the discovery, the challenge to get the most.

However, when the hunt is conducted on a community-wide scale, those same motivators can often change the landscape. It occurs to me that watching a large Easter egg hunt is akin to observing all of the facets of human nature, playing out right there in front of your eyes on the field. There is passion, aggression, greed, joy, disappointment, ambition, generosity, sympathy and determination.

And that’s just the adults.

I was struck by the report of an egg hunt in Ohio, where shopping mall proprietors had to apologize for the behavior of adults, some of whom were seen literally blocking children out of the way, knocking them down to facilitate their own kids’ success. Despite several warnings and admonishments to the grown-ups to stop picking up the prizes themselves, they continued to “assist” their own offspring by gathering up eggs for them. The result was many children winding up with few or no rewards at all.

Distasteful as that may be, it’s hard for me to judge the adults too harshly. More than sheer greed, they were likely driven by an out-of-control desire to provide the maximum possible joy for their own kids. It’s love gone radical. It’s a blinders approach to a purpose in a vacuum. And it’s become the mantra for our culture today.

Far too often we are all about ourselves, our families, our circle of friends. Our own political beliefs, our own moral convictions, our own definitions of normal. Our own basket of Easter eggs. How ironic that so many of these self-centered human foibles are on display at an Easter egg hunt, during a season which commemorates the ultimate act of unselfishness.

Are we doomed to a future of self-absorption and loss of empathy? Maybe not. I recently saw video of an egg hunt where children aged preschool through fifth grade were instructed to search for eggs by color. Younger kids were to pick up certain colors, older kids to collect those of other colors. Nice concept. Difficult to control. And the result was predictable. The older kids, faster and stronger than the young, mostly disregarded the color structure and filled their bags with whatever they could find. It wasn’t long before anarchy prevailed and it was every kid for himself, regardless of color.

But through the chaos there were signs of hope. A few of the older tots, recognizing that the young had little chance of success, were seen not only helping the toddlers fill their bags, but actually taking eggs out of their own container and giving them away. That kind of altruism seldom occurs naturally. It is a result of having it modeled to them. Modeled by parents and siblings who have not bought into the us-first mentality.

Patience, courtesy, humility, respect and reverence are still out there. A little harder to find perhaps, but still there. I find that those who practice them are almost always inspired by a relationship with God. By the example of sacrifice for others modeled by Jesus on the cross, the seminal event of the Easter season.

It’s never a mistake to put all your eggs in that basket.