One day, my daughter brought home a plastic, yellow Easter egg from school.
She smiled as she showed it to me, holding it in her little hand, open and empty.
I asked her what had been inside, assuming it had been some candy that had immediately been eaten because that is usually what happens at our house.
She said: “Nothing was inside. This is so we remember Jesus’ tomb was empty on Easter.”
Ah… the empty tomb. The resurrection. The conquering of death.
Jesus’ friends and disciples all assumed his body was still inside the tomb. That is where they had left him.
Why wouldn’t He be there?
How Being A Bereaved Mum Changed The Way I See Easter
Let’s face it: Jesus was especially good about not doing what people expected, even after He had told them it would happen!
Aren’t we all naïve?!
The next day after my conversation with my daughter, I found a picture of myself from springtime two years ago.
It brought back all of the memories from the baby that passed away two years ago.
I started to think about how empty my womb had felt after we lost our baby: the open expanse of hollow, negative space, the loud echo of life’s sadness within my soul.
That had been where my child was.
I knew God put him there. I had seen him there. Then in one moment, my chances of life with that child were gone.
Life doesn’t always turn out as we expect. Suddenly, once again, my womb felt empty and abandoned, desolate and deserted.
It was then that I began to consider what the empty tomb and the empty womb have in common: that which was once dead inside is now alive!
1 Corinthians 15:20 states: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen.”
My baby is also alive, born into Heaven, and is loved by God more than I can imagine… more than I could ever love that child on earth… and all because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
If it were not for the empty tomb, my womb would not be redeemed from this world of sin, hardship, and toil, my baby would not (right now, in fact) be in Heaven, and I would not be able to one day meet that child.
Romans 5:8-10 states: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!”
Death and life… good and bad… lost and found… all summed up in Jesus’ sacrifice out of His great love for us.
The dichotomy between the simplicity of the cross and the complexity of the cross are exposed on Easter.
The good, the bad, and the spiritual face off in the ultimate war that was won by Christ who overcame death.
If it weren’t for the empty tomb, I would not have any hope in the midst of an empty womb.
This life is hard, friends.
This life is bitter and rough.
This life gets you down daily.
This season can bear down without a chance to catch another breath.
It doesn’t appear that death has been conquered…yet.
However, newness is on the horizon.
We know that spring is coming when all things will be brought back to life: physically with the change of seasons and metaphorically when all things are restored.
The rejuvenation will happen once again.
The dead plants will bloom, the lifeless grass will become green and grow, the bare trees will produce leaves and fruit.
Heaven will come down to Earth.
So if you find yourself with an empty “Easter egg” today in whatever area of life facing you right now, know that God will fill it with His loving kindness and His glory (and probably in an unexpected way), if not in this life, then in the next.
Be present in His glorious springtime splendor and keep your eyes to the skies because someday soon we will be reunited with our babies in Heaven.
About the Author: Julie Garmenn is a mom by day and a dance studio owner and teacher by night. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Indiana and dreams about the day when she will hold her son in Heaven. Through her life, she has dealt with infertility and second-semester miscarriage. She hopes her journey and writing can educate and inform others about the compassion and kindness necessary in comforting a loss mother’s broken heart. Her blog is: 
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