The Cure

"What are you two working on?" Mom asked as she set grocery bags on the counter. "Our Sunday school teacher gave us homework," answered Maddie. Abby, Maddie's best friend, looked up from her project. "But it's fun work," she added. Mom looked at the kitchen table. Glue sticks, scissors, sheets of tissue paper, a stack of thick white card stock, and gel pens in a variety of colors covered the surface. "What's the assignment?"Maddie put down the large egg shape she had cut out of card stock. "We're supposed to make invitations for the Easter service on Sunday. Mrs. Miller wants us to hand them out to our neighbors and friends who don't have a church."Abby also cut out an egg shape. "We decided to make our invitations look like Easter eggs. We'll decorate the front, and on the back we'll write the time and place."Mom watched as Maddie glued pink and purple tissue paper strips onto her egg, then added sequins down the center of each strip. Abby tore pieces of tissue and covered her paper egg with a mosaic of overlapping colors."What a great idea," said Mom. "These beautiful invitations can point people to the cure."Maddie put her glue stick down. "What cure?""Do our neighbors have a disease? Is it Covid?" asked Abby. Mom smiled. "We were all born with a disease. It's called sin, and it's deadly. Without the cure, this disease ends with death, so Jesus came to save us. He's the cure!""Is Jesus like that pink medicine I took for my earache?" asked Maddie."Sort of," said Mom. "Only much better."Abby looked confused. "How do we take Jesus?" "Remember when you and Maddie both trusted Jesus as your Savior at church camp last summer?" The girls nodded. "When you trusted in Him, He took away your sin," Mom told them. "He forgave you for the wrong things you've done and gave you eternal life. Now you never need to be afraid of death, because even though our bodies die, Jesus promises to raise you from the dead one day, just like He rose again on Easter Sunday."Maddie picked up her scissors. "I guess we need to make a bunch of these invitations so everyone can know about the cure!" -Bonnie Carr