You may be looking for a magical egg hunt story like in the fairytales, but this is not one of those stories. It’s more of a story about how God intentionally pursued my heart. It all began about 13 years ago when our 2 youngest daughters were about 6 or 7 years old. My wife Diane would always invite me to an Easter egg hunt of some sort. I always declined, not because of the kids or my wife, but because I didn’t grow up with that culture or even know of the significance behind it. I also didn’t find it profitable to spend my time doing that type of activity. I usually worked on the weekends, so I thought work was more important. Each time they went, I remember the girls coming home and asking me, "Hey, why didn’t you come?" And they always said, "We had so much fun!"
Every year I received the same invitation and every year they were given the same answer. During that time of my life, I was working two jobs and by the weekend I always found myself exhausted. On Saturdays, I wanted to spend my morning resting before working that evening. One particular morning, while I was at home, I came across the pictures in the hallway of the girls when they were toddlers. I saw their faces smiling, but I also saw faces that needed help, faces that were looking for a daddy figure to lead them and guide them, faces that said, "Dad, I can’t do it by myself." That morning was one of the hardest mornings of my life. I broke down, I had no more energy, I realized I was tired of fighting with the world, I was tired of hurting people, I was tired of allowing people to hurt me, and I was tired of my poor choices. I remember clearly getting on my knees and asking God to lead my life again because I had turned away. I wanted to follow Him, but I knew I couldn't do it on my own. Sometime after that, I was asked again if I was coming to the Easter Egg Hunt and I said yes, I am. My wife and kids were so happy to hear that!
As we prepared to go, I wondered how much is this gonna cost me? Remember it took years of struggle for me to go to this type of event. As I walked into Skyline’s annual Easter Egg Hunt I noticed everyone. I mean everyone, the kids, the adults, every human being was smiling. For a minute I felt like the Grinch who stole Christmas. I asked myself, what is this? Why is everybody smiling? I had worked the night before and to be honest, everything was bothering me. The sunlight, the laughter, even the people smiling. I needed to find out what was going on. All the volunteers were so kind and accommodating and actually very genuine. I was shocked, amazed and even stoked to find out that there wasn’t a charge to enter, for all the goodies, eggs with candy or arts & crafts. Yet, I still thought that this can't all be free, they must be going to get us somewhere or another because nothing is free in this world.
Little did I know that there really was no charge for the event and this was all done because they loved the community and wanted to give a gift back to them. I was so moved by this that I wanted to investigate the organization that would do all of this. That was the beginning of my journey to finding God again. After that, I started attending weekly services at Skyline. The more that I attended, the more that I got involved and realized that all of these people really are genuine because they loved God and wanted to share His love with others. Since that time I have been a part of this community.
1 John 4:19 We love because he first love us.