As a parent of a 4-year-old, you can probably imagine I’ve been to my fair share of Easter egg hunts over the last few years.

Last week, I had to miss one hunt on this year’s slate. The Tuesday hunt was one in which Anna’s school class participated.

A photograph my wife took at the hunt made me smile and, no, our daughter was not in the photo.

The image, however, epitomizes the common spirit we all need to work to find in ourselves and reflect to the world around us.

Interestingly, two small members of my daughter’s pre-K3 class provided the unexpected lesson.

The photograph was a candid shot of a little boy and a little girl walking together, hand in hand.

That’s normally just a cute picture. But something that shouldn’t matter made the scene a little more different than just a cute shot to me.

The little boy was white and the little girl black.

Just two classmates enjoying a pretty day. Skin color didn’t matter a bit to these two.

How often, though, do we as adults judge one another — by a myriad of measurements including race, class, beauty, etc. — rather than accepting all and simply helping one another?

We’re all guilty of judging others in some way. I know I am, despite working to improve myself.

That makes me ashamed most days, but particularly today as we celebrate Easter.

It is staggering to me how amazingly great Jesus Christ was on earth, how great His sacrifice for us was and how critical his salvation is to us.

The little song many of us learned at Sunday school, “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” told us that Jesus did not see color, or even religion when loving and teaching people during His time walking the earth.

He loved and accepted everyone as being worthy of saving, provided they accepted Him as their savior.

Funny thing is 3- and 4-year-olds are the same way — at least until the grown-up world around them begins to change them.

Sometimes I think about the “what ifs” in our community.

What if, through the hard work of local law enforcement officers, we could truly rid out community of drugs and their grip on those who use them?

What if, along with the drug problems, we could also eliminate the crime in our community as well — much of which tends to stem from drugs?

What if we could all learn to stop judging one another and simply started loving and supporting all — regardless of how different we may be?

What if the racial divisions that have long created animosity simply vanish and we just no longer care or react differently to people of different colors?

What if more of us just tried to follow in Christ’s footsteps and worked hard to emulate the amazing model of love he showed humanity through His willingness to suffer for our sins?

What if, just like those two young classmates, we could just all hold hands and help one another without prejudice of any kind?

That would be an amazing picture of the love celebrated on Easter.
Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.