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 Hans 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. Anyone with a freezer experiences that phenomenon. Three years and visual freezer burn seems to be my personal limit, but freezer burn and food safety is very subjective.
Several years ago, while living across the road from my mother-in-law, we got a call. She found a peanut butter egg in the freezer.
This was a peanut butter egg from a local church 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 had saved this peanut butter egg to enjoy another day. One that would be well after their spring diets. That day never came. My father-in-law 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. My father-in-law never got a chance to enjoy that egg with my mother-in-law, but we did.
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. 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 my father-in-law.
He 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 my mother-in-law wished she had not taken that egg and saved it for another day. She wished that she could have enjoyed it with her husband. 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?
My mother-in-law 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 Flurie
Jody Flurie is the Founder and Owner of Red Dirt Legacy Co. where family legacy stories are celebrated through each Little Legacy Film Series - a series of short videos that can be easily shared to keep children and grandparents connected by what matters most for each family.
Jody believes all kids, young and old, need to understand where they came from and why it matters. Everyday, she works hard to instill this in her family because it’s only through understanding who we are that we can be fully ourselves and make a true indelible mark on the world.
If you want the same thing that Jody wants for her family, visit reddirtlegacyco.com to find out how your family can celebrate the wisdom, love, and legacy of an earlier generation. If we don’t step up to bring hope to our families, who will?