When I was a kid, the city where I lived hosted an annual Easter egg hunt at a park down the street from my house. One year as I stood at the starting line, I spotted, off in the distance, the golden egg. Each year the officials of the event placed one large, glistening golden egg in each age group’s section of the hunt. The child who discovered it would triumphantly claim a large prize in front of all the other kids.
This was my year. I, alone, had seen the golden egg, tucked underneath the right-field fence on baseball diamond number four. When the gun went off, I ran with all my might past all the eggs lying in the field, not wanting to pick any up and slow myself down. I blew past my friends Chris and Steve and eventually reached the fence, winded and sweaty. When I bent down to grab my prize, I couldn’t believe my eyes: my golden egg had turned into a shiny candy wrapper! All along it had been an illusion. I was crushed. I turned around and looked back across the field. By that time all the other eggs were gone. I walked home that day without a single Easter egg in my basket.
Our Obsession with Golden Eggs
I’ve heard it said that as we grow older, the games we play don’t change, they just become more expensive. I believe that. In our culture people are consumed with finding the golden egg. I know I struggle with this pursuit at times. What’s interesting about golden eggs is that they differ for each person. For some of you, your golden egg is your body. You’re consumed with looking great and will do anything, pay anything, add anything, and cut anything to get it. For others, your golden egg is money. You’re consumed with becoming the next Bill Gates, currently one of the richest men in the world.
For others, the golden egg is stuff—cars, boats, homes, clothes, jewelry, vacations. About a decade ago talk show host Oprah Winfrey was busy redesigning a home in Montecito, California, larger than her 9700 square foot home in Chicago. Her new 50 million dollar, 23,000 square foot home is located on 40 plus acres complete with an additional guest house, gatehouse, two ponds, and a lake. Maybe that’s your golden egg—to live in a home the size of a small eastern European country.
Whatever your golden egg is, God tells us it’s an illusion. It isn’t real. Not that some people won’t find their golden egg eventually. It’s just that when they do, it won’t deliver the blissful happiness they want it to deliver.
What is the golden egg in your life?
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