resurrected peanut butter egg

That was frozen for how long?!? Did you ever pull something out of the freezer and ask yourself, “How old is this?” Then find yourself answering, “It can’t be that old, right? I’ll just eat it anyway.” I have. Freezing things makes time stand still. Think about Han Solo in Star Wars. He was frozen and came out just fine. Ok, maybe that’s a bad example since that was science fiction and carbonite freezing, but freezing clearly preserves food.

It is so fun to save good fresh food for a time when the land is barren and the cupboards open to disclose only a few mustards and hot sauces. When those blueberries are frozen just the right amount of time, pulling a steaming, delicious, blueberry pie from the oven in the dead of winter is amazing.

On the farm, we love freezing fresh blueberries, homemade sausage, and venison to use throughout the year. Occasionally, we’ll freeze a few pies and some lamb. Battling a chest freezer can be difficult though and sometimes a carefully wrapped package of sausage slips to the bottom and ages a bit too long. We have all experienced that. Three years and visual freezer burn seems to be my personal limit, but freezer burn and food safety is very subjective.

Grandma Great’s Eggs

Several years ago, while living across the road from Mary, my mother-in-law, we got a call. She found a peanut butter egg in the freezer. This wasn’t one of the eggs pictured - those are ones that Grandma Great and I used to make together.

This was a peanut butter egg from a church around here that is known for their Easter egg production. They sell them wrapped in color-coded foil giving a visual clue for what’s inside - peanut butter, coconut, or marshmallow. Bryce’s parents loved those eggs and bought some faithfully every year.

It was the middle of March and she had found one. Not too bad, right? That is only 11 months from Easter. She wanted us to have the rest and quickly informed us that she and my children, who were with her at the time, had eaten it and were just fine. Can you hear the alarm bells going off? What did that mean? They ate it and were fine?!

She and my father-in-law, Bud had saved this peanut butter egg to enjoy another day. One that would be well after their Spring diets. That day never came for Mary and Bud. Bud passed away on Easter eve that same spring. Easter was hard that year and it has been bittersweet every year since. This year marks 20 years. Bud never got a chance to enjoy that egg with Mary, but we did.

Bryce And The Eight Year-Old Egg

She brought us the egg. She really wanted us to have some. She emphasized that we wouldn’t get sick because she and the kids felt fine. We sat at the dining room table in the ranch house with the peanut butter egg and a glass of wine. It was 2007, we toasted my father-in-law and ate that egg - THAT EIGHT YEAR-OLD EGG. We didn’t get sick but we did cry a little while remembering Bud.

Bud didn’t get to experience the joy of eating that peanut butter egg, but we got to appreciate and experience his memory with the woman he loved. There were many days that Mary wished she had not taken that egg and saved it for another day. She wished that she could have enjoyed it with Bud. It makes me think about what we save and what we give.

What are we saving for another day that we should do today? If we give today rather than store something away, who will be impacted? Will it be life-changing?

Mary resurrected that Easter peanut butter egg from the freezer creating a shared memory that we cherish, but it pales in comparison to what God did.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” - John 11:25-26

This Easter, let’s make sure we save the right things and give the best things.

Searching for wisdom and asking for grace,

Jody