Bold Like An Easter Egg Dip

Forgive me for my excitement over something so mundane but I have a confession---I don't eat eggs. Okay, I eat chocolate peanut butter eggs but not the real kind that you scramble. I'm so against eggs I never decorated them as an adult, that was a grandma special project when she came for a visit.

This year we had snow storm after snow storm and this last one occurred when my son had a friend visit for an overnight. We had traveling plans that I knew weren't going to happen. I saw the egg kit and went for it.

I can make things well from scratch but easy kit directions tend to stump me, so I read the egg kit decorations carefully. This is where I get excited.

To make bolder colors, add vinegar.

The longer you keep the egg dipped, the bolder the egg color becomes.

Vinegar isn't a liquid of choice. It smells and if you have to taste it, well it's bitter.

Just ask Jesus.

The vinegar stick they handed Him wasn't a soda. It wasn't intended to provide true relief.

Bold outcome calls for a long stay in bitter liquid. I can't think of anything more horrific than beating, mocking, whipping and lashing coming from leather strips with sharp blunt objects attached to expose not skin, but bone. That's quite a dip to stay in.

Yet how bold His color when He arose from the environment.

In 2003-4 our family was submerged in the vinegar of life. Job changes, abnormal newborn test results, medical mix up, doctor error, croup, near death, RSV, pneumonia, new job, move, terminal diagnosis in family, surgery for child, death of parent, grief, selling home in one state to buy home in another, leave everyone and everything to obey God's call on our life.

Last line sound familiar this most Holy Week?

If you are facing adversity, think about the decorated eggs. My very favorite ones are the bold and brilliant ones. The ones that carry the trace of vinegar because they stayed in the bitter stuff the longest.

And thrived.

Just like you can.

Just like He did.

For you.

Julie Arduini is a surrendered writer with her own blog, http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she blogs for the Christian Writers Forum Sundays as the mommy blogger and is the Forum's book club facilitator. She is active with FaithWriters and has several writings ready to publish in different books and anthologies in 2008-09. Julie was chosen as the March 2008 FaithReaders.com author of the month. To get to know her better, read her interview by Linda Schab at: http://www.faithreaders.com/featured-author-details.php?id=33%20

To contact Julie, please contact her at the e mail address provided in the profile.