Painting the shell

This Easter I decided to paint some Easter eggs, something I haven't done in over 10 years. I'm not exactly sure where this tradition began, but (unlike the eggs I painted) there are some amazing works of art to be found out there. I'm especially impressed with Ukrainian Easter eggs, on which the artwork is incredibly intricate.

So I started thinking, what is an egg? Seems like a silly question, but as I looked at this white egg I realised there was actually life inside. I also wondered if by painting the shell am I doing justice to the pure white beauty of the egg. It in itselt is simply a perfect shape, although no two are exactly alike. Rather than painting a hard boiled egg I decided to blow out the yolk through a small hole on each end (purely for the purpose of preserving the egg long term). So now I was working with an empty shell, ready to paint it beautiful.

Isn't this how we treat life sometimes? We focus on the shell, making it as beautiful as we can, trying to impress others with the outer beauty, and tend to neglect the life that's growing from within. Rather than embracing an often painful growth, and natural pressure which inevitable cracks the shell, we instead focus on preserving the shell and painting it in brilliant colours. Sometimes we kill or "blow out" the life inside only to preserve the shell. Why has this shell become so important to us?

I guess it depends on who we are trying to impress. God has created us into growing physical and spritual beings. Any shell is only to protect us when we are most vulnerable, He has never intended to keep anyone in a shell forever. Real growth brings cracks, breaks the shell of our lives and the process may not be easy or beautiful,... at least not at first. But life's not about the shell or how brilliantly we paint it, but the real beauty lies in the life that hatches from within. Real beauty comes from growth which extends itself and cracks the shell, trusting God to teach us to fly, and to one day soar as eagles (Isaiah 40:31)

So let's not be too concerned about preserving our "beautiful shell". By cracking it we just may be birthing something much more beautiful.