He was 9—in a Sunday school class of 8-year-olds. 8-year-olds can be cruel.

The third-graders did not welcome Philip to their group. Not just because he was older. He was “different.” He suffered from Downs syndrome and its obvious manifestations: facial characteristics, slow responses, symptoms of retardation.

One Sunday after Easter the Sunday school teacher gathered some of those plastic eggs that you can pull apart in the middle. The Sunday school teacher gave one of these plastic eggs to each child.

On that beautiful spring day each child was told to go outdoors and discover for himself some symbol of “new life” and place that symbolic seed or leaf or whatever inside their eggs. They would then open their eggs one by one, and each youngster would explain how his find was a symbol of “new life”.

So the youngsters gathered around on the appointed day and put their eggs on a table, and the teacher began to open them.

One child had found a flower. All the children “oohed” and “aahed” at the lovely symbol of new life. In another was a butterfly. “Beautiful,” the girls said. And its not easy for an 8-year-old to say “beautiful.” Another egg was opened to reveal a rock. Some of the children laughed. “Thats crazy!” One said. “Hows a rock supposed to be like a ‘new life?” Immediately the little boy spoke up and said, “Thats mine. I knew everybody would get flowers and leaves and butterflies and all that stuff, so I got a rock to be different.”

Everyone laughed.

The teacher opened the last one, and there was nothing inside.

“Thats not fair,” someone said. “Thats stupid,” said another.

The teacher felt a tug on his shirt. It was Philip. Looking up he said, “It's mine. I did do it. It's empty. I have new life because the tomb is empty.”

The class fell silent.

From that day on Philip became part of the group. They welcomed him. Whatever had made him different was never mentioned again.

Philip's family had known he would not live a long life; just too many things wrong with the tiny body. That summer, overcome with infection, Philip died.

On the day of his funeral nine 8-year-old boys and girls confronted the reality of death and marched up to the altar—not with flowers. Nine children with their Sunday school teacher placed on the casket of their friend their gift of love—an empty egg.

菲利普的彩蛋

那年他9歲，在一所周日學(xué)校上學(xué)。他所在的班級由8歲的學(xué)生組成。8歲的孩子也會很殘忍。

這些三年級的學(xué)生不歡迎菲利普的加入，不只是因?yàn)樗挲g稍大，而是因?yàn)樗芭c眾不同”，他身患唐氏綜合癥，并有著明顯的癥狀：面部畸形、反應(yīng)遲鈍、行動緩慢。

復(fù)活節(jié)之后的一個(gè)星期日，學(xué)校的老師收集了一些可從中間打開的塑料彩蛋。老師將彩蛋發(fā)給學(xué)生，每人一個(gè)。

在那個(gè)美麗的春日，每個(gè)學(xué)生都要到戶外尋找“新生命”的象征，并將有代表性的種子、樹葉或其它東西放進(jìn)彩蛋里。他們將依次打開彩蛋，并解釋為何他們所找到的東西象征著“新生命”。

于是，孩子們在約定的那天聚在一起，把彩蛋放到桌子上由老師逐個(gè)打開。

有個(gè)學(xué)生找了一朵花。所有的學(xué)生都對這朵美麗的生命之花贊嘆有加。另一個(gè)學(xué)生找的是蝴蝶?！疤懒耍　迸凅@呼。要知道，從一個(gè)8歲的孩子口中說出“美”這個(gè)字并非易事。另一個(gè)彩蛋里裝的是石頭。有的學(xué)生開始大笑?！昂喼笔钳偭耍　庇腥苏f道，“石頭怎么會是‘新生命呢？”有個(gè)小男孩立即表態(tài)道：“那是我的。我知道你們都會找花、樹葉和蝴蝶之類的，我不想和你們一樣，所以找了塊石頭?！?/p>

全班哄堂大笑。

老師打開最后一個(gè)彩蛋，但里面空空如也。

“不公平！”有學(xué)生憤怒地說?！疤薮懒耍　绷硪粋€(gè)學(xué)生說。

突然，老師感覺到有人在拉他的襯衫。是菲利普。他抬頭看著老師，說：“這是我的。我真的找到了。雖然它是空的，但我有新生命，因?yàn)閴災(zāi)故强盏难?。?/p>

教室里頓時(shí)鴉雀無聲。

從那天起，菲利普徹底融入了這個(gè)集體，他始受到歡迎，而他的“與眾不同”再也沒有人提起。

他的家人早就知道，菲利普將不久于人世，他那小小的軀體已是百病纏身了。那個(gè)夏天，終究沒能敵過疾病感染，菲利普走了

在他葬禮那天，九個(gè)8歲的孩子見證著死亡，向祭臺邁去，但他們沒有帶花。九個(gè)孩子和主日學(xué)校的老師一起，在他們朋友的骨灰盒上獻(xiàn)上了愛的禮物——一個(gè)空的彩蛋。