Dear Church Family and Friends,
This Easter season I invite you to undertake a spiritual practice that will add meaning to your life. More specifically, I invite you to think of ways you can bring the Spirit of Love into your life through heartfelt acts of caring regard and generous giving. If it should help generate your own thoughts and practices, I will share with you my own plan of action. For this Easter season, my spiritual practice will be to bring to life the Spirit of Love that my grandmother once modeled for me. Together with Danalyn, I will be making “Bunnies with Jelly Bean Shoes” for us to deliver as gifts. These scrumptious sweets are essentially sugar cookies made with a bunny shaped cutout and—as the name suggests—jelly beans for shoes. My grandmother made them every Easter, and now I want to pass along this tradition of caring regard and generous giving to my daughter as we use the same cookie cutter that my own mother has used in the past.
In the cookbook compiled in memory of my grandmother, there are some extra notes supplied with the entry for this cookie recipe. My grandmother was once a school teacher, and underneath the name of the cookie, a parenthetical comment reads, “Easter fun for kindergartners.” On a corresponding page, one also finds the words and music for a song called, “I Had a Little Bunny with Jelly Bean Shoes.” For those who are interested, I am including the recipe below. Photocopies of the song can be provided upon request.
This Easter I encourage you to find your own way to bring the Spirit of Love to life. Make it your opportunity to celebrate the risen Christ not just in word but also in deed.
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks
Bunnies with Jelly Bean Shoes
2 sticks (1/2 lb.) margarine, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups sifted flour
¼ teaspoon salt
Jelly beans
Mix margarine and sugar. Add milk and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Combine flour and salt. Blend into mixture. Knead into smooth ball. (Dough may be refrigerated at this point.)
Roll dough out. Cut with bunny cookie cutter. Sprinkle each bunny with granulated sugar. Bake on lightly greased baking sheet at 325 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.
After baking press ½ of a jelly bean on cookies for shoes. Remove from cookie sheet. These cookies only brown slightly on bottom.