Hunting Eggs and Finding Keys

" Warmer..."

" Now you're hot."

" Hotter!"

" You're so hot you're on fire!!!"

These are some of the comments you would have heard at our house on Sunday afternoon as we guided and misguided the boys around the yard in search of their hidden Easter eggs. They had a blast as usual, but this year I made one huge mistake in purchasing stuff for their buckets. I bought them camouflage eggs, because they share a love of hunting with their father. I thought that would be cool. I forgot about one small detail...no one could find them!! Oh well... lesson learned, and only 4 eggs were permanently lost. It actually made it fun towards the end because it got me, my dad, my husband and both my brothers in a healthy competition to find the rest.

That morning didn't have the smoothest start, however...

I sent the guys on to church, so I could finish up the last touches on the lunch preparations. I was planning on being about 10 minutes behind. Unfortunately, once I was ready to walk out the door, I couldn't find my keys. Panicking that I might miss the service and no one would get to see my pretty new Easter dress, I started frantically retracing all of my steps from the day before. I finally gave up the search and began calling people. I finally reached our sound guy's wife who so graciously called her husband, who so kindly came down from the sound booth to call Matt out of the service to tell him to go pick up his frantic wife who couldn't find her keys.

Moments later, Matt came flying down the driveway, a cloud of dust following close behind. I jumped in the truck and immediately found it appropriate to chew him out for not thinking, "Where is Abbey? Maybe she lost her keys...I should go call her." Then I moved straight from him to the kids and how "I just knew it was Wilson." "He always carries my keys around and I know he lost them."

Then suddenly, in the middle of my fit, Jesus stepped in. Here's how...

As we were leaving the driveway, I said, "Stop!! There they are!" And to my astonishment and relief, my keys were lying in the gravel at the top of the driveway. So we screeched to a halt. I got out, swooped them up and began "going off" on poor Wilson. (As I ever so carefully got back into the truck, so as not to wrinkle my beautiful Easter dress that no one had seen yet.) Just as I got comfortable, it hit me. Clear as a bell I remembered...Saturday I cleaned out the van, and set my keys on Matt's bumper.

So there it was. The truth. The truth about my keys. The truth about me. The truth about that Resurrection morning that was almost missed completely. Thankfully Jesus stepped in and gently took back the spot-light on that well deserved Sunday morning.

After church (and many hard-to-swallow compliments on my dress), I went home to join my family in a wonderful lunch.

I had a healthy dose of humble pie.

It was bitter sweet.