Easter egg dying is a weeklong project in our house. We begin dying eggs the Saturday before Palm Sunday and end the Saturday before Easter.

No Paas egg dye for us; instead we (or at least my husband and two good friends) create works of art with Ukrainian egg dyes, styluses and beeswax. Dipping a stylus heated by the flame of a candle into beeswax, we can make lines, circles and all kinds of varied colors. As the week goes on, dark colors cover up the lighter ones. Since each dye color saturates the egg, the trick is to remember the sequence of dyes—from light to dark—as you apply the beeswax to your egg to create its design.

The final dye color in which we dip our beeswax covered egg is black. The entire egg, with its beeswax designs (squiggles in my case) and layers of color, is completely saturated with the darkest dye. The egg starts white and by Good Friday, ends black.

The fun comes when we melt the wax over low heat, and carefully wipe it off the egg to reveal the design under the black dye and wax.

I've gone to plenty of Palm Sunday (and Good Friday and Easter) services with my hands stained from the dye. The dye eventually fades, but on Palm Sunday, no matter how loud I shout, "Hosanna," my heart remains saturated and stained with sin.

And none of my good works or self-efforts can wipe off the stain. I need another color, a crimson stain, to cover my sin. I can't even cover it myself. And it needs to soak into my heart, mind and soul to create a new life in me, a workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

Now that's worth shouting hosanna as I look to a cross outside the city.