Good Friday

"Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time." ~Martin Luther
"Jesus took my place on the cross to give me a place in heaven."(unknown)


Oh What a day filled with memories. Good Friday. A good day for prayers and planting. When we were Children Good Friday was a kick off day for a great week end. We would all work in the garden that day. They wouldn't even think of having children in class on Good Friday. It was a holiday. Daddy always planted the garden on Good Friday. Many people still believe that to be the very best day for planting gardens. I always plant a few things myself. I guess that any day that is a blessed day should help my seeds to sprout and grow. We cleaned the pool and got it ready for swimming on Good Friday. We would begin to swim after Easter. On the early evening of Good Friday Daddy would always drag down a huge pot and fill it with eggs From the store. We had chickens so we always had fresh eggs every day but for Easter eggs Mama always bought a few dozen to Dye. Fresh eggs are usually brown or beige But bought eggs are mostly snow white and able to absorb the colors better. While the eggs were cooking Mama and Daddy would set out old coffee cups and Daddy would carefully measure food color into each one. Blending the food colors together to make every color in the rainbow. Mama would follow with vinegar and again the careful measuring would begin. Finally they would fill each cup almost to the rim with Boiling water. By the time they had everything set up the eggs would be done and mama would have rinsed them all under cold water. She would remove any with cracks or nicks and lay the others out on white paper towels to wait for the fun to begin. Mama always pulled out ten and wrote everyone's name on one with a wax crayon. She'd write Mama on her's and Daddy Rabbit On daddy's. Then beginning with Davey she would go down the line and write all of our names on an egg. We all knew how the crayon would coat the egg Keeping that area white while the rest turned to some wonderful color. Even though we knew how it worked, it still gave us thrills to see our name appearing on our very own egg for Easter. Each of us would be allowed to dye a few eggs after that. We would dip one end sometimes and then the other to Make two toned eggs. Mary would always draw flowers or other pictures on hers with the crayon then dip them into several different colors. Trudy always dyed at least one yellow and one blue. I remember that Jimmy once dipped one of his eggs into every color till it came out black. We all laughed and told him it looked like a rotten egg. Daddy always dyed a few too and would always take one very special one and wrap it tightly in foil to be the prize egg. Mama had a huge basket that for most of the year held her curlers On Her dresser But this time of year it was emptied out and dusted off then filled with a packet of green Plastic grass. That basket was simply beautful when we filled it with our Easter eggs.
We would all place our eggs carefully into the basket and then all gather around Daddy as he told us about why We celebrated easter. He told us about how Jesus Died for the sins of every one. He told us how they laid him in a tomb but that when they came back Jesus was already gone. He had risen from the dead.
He would always remind us that we serve a living Savior. I dyed eggs with my children when they were small and told them the Easter story. I boiled eggs today and told myself the story Just to remind myself of the wonderful story of Easter. I don't have any children here to hunt eggs But Even I like egg salad.
Have a truly Good Friday!