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#16 Rich & Janae's Wedding

PHILIP'S EGG

   Harry Prichett, Jr. tells a marvelous story about a boy named Philip, who had Down's syndrome, and his Sunday School teacher, Prichett's friend.  Despite the teacher's best efforts, Philip, with his differences, wasn't accepted by the other 8-year-old boys.

   The teacher came up with a great idea for his class the Sunday after Easter.  He collected 10 of the containers that panty hose come in--those things that look like big eggs.  He gave one to each child with the assignment to go outside, find a symbol for new life, put it into the egg, and bring it back to the classroom.  They would then open and share their new-life symbols and surprises one by one.

   The children gathered their objects and returned to the room.  As the teacher opened the eggs, the children cried out in delight as a flower, a butterfly, a rock came into view.

   Then he opened another egg--and it was empty.  "That's stupid," said the children.
   "It's mine," Philip announced.  "It's mine."

   "You don't ever do things right, Philip.  There's nothing there!"

   "I did so do it," replied Philip.  "I did so do it.  It's empty.  The tomb is empty!"

   There was a silence, a very full silence.  And for you people who don't believe in miracles, I want to tell you that one happened that day last spring.  From that time on, it was different.  Philip suddenly became a part of that group of 8-year-old children.  They took him in.  He was free from the tomb of his differences.

   Philip died last summer.  His family had known since the time he was born that he wouldn't live out a full life span.  Many other things had been wrong with his tiny body.  And so, late last July, with an infection that most normal children could have quickly shrugged off, Philip died.  The mystery enveloped him.

   At the funeral, nine 8-year-old children marched up to the alter, not with flowers to cover over the stark reality of death.  Nine 8-year-olds, with their Sunday school teacher, marched right up to that altar and laid on it an empty egg--an empty, old, discarded panty hose egg.             

 ---Taken from "Behold His Glory" by William G. Johnsson

"He is not here for He is risen, as he said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay."
Matt. 28:6