Byron never felt like he belonged. His family attended a near by church where I served in Henderson, NC and I came to know his family well. He was pleasant enough but he looked a bit different and sometimes seemed unusual to his eight-year-old classmates. There was a reason. Byron was born with Downs Syndrome.

In his Sunday school class several weeks before Easter, the Sunday school teacher introduced a special project. She gave every member a plastic “egg”–the kind pantyhose used to come in. She explained that each child was to go outside, find a symbol for new life and put it into the egg. Enthusiastically, the class responded.

Back in the classroom the eggs were opened one at a time with each child explaining the meaning of his symbol.

In the first egg was a pretty flower; in the next a beautiful butterfly, while green grass was in a third. The children “oohed” and “ahhed”. In another was a rock, which prompted loud laughter. Finally the last egg was opened – there was nothing.

“That’s stupid,” said one child. Another grumbled, ”Someone didn’t do it right!

The Sunday school teacher felt a tug on her shirt. It was Byron, who said, “That’s mine, and I did do right! It’s empty, ’cause the tomb was empty.” I remembering the Sunday school teacher later telling me that she felt sorry for him, and felt that he didn’t do the assignment as well as the other kids, but she gave him a pat on the back.

Byron continued to struggle with many physical problems. That summer he picked up an infection which most children would easily have shaken off. But Byron’s weak body couldn’t and a few weeks later, he died.

At his funeral nine eight year-olds with the Sunday school teacher brought their symbol of remembrance and placed it near his coffin. Their unusual gift of love to Byron wasn’t flowers. It was an empty egg now a symbol to them of new life and hope.

Since I have been serving as pastor in the North Carolina Conference I have presided over 40 funerals of people, many of them children, younger than I am (I turned 33 in January).

I can’t imagine the pain, the tears, and the heartache caused by the death of a child. But our heavenly Father can, because His own Son was crucified for our sins. And praise God that the story doesn’t end on an empty cross, but it ends in an empty tomb.

Because Jesus arose from the dead, Byron shall also. Because Jesus rose form the dead, that means that all those who died knowing Jesus as Lord will one day physically arise as well. And because that tomb was empty, we can arise as new people today, walking in the fullness of life that can only come from knowing the joy that can come from an empty tomb.