The night before Easter got off to a questionable start when I found a bug in my bed. This one bug ended up costing Allison and I any quality sleep on our short night. But oh well, all was made well the next day.
You know that you have to be excited in order to have energy and smile when being up at 4am on a Sunday morning. But this was no problem for me, I mean, after all Easter is my favorite day of the year. It always has been. Why you ask? I just think its so great- to spend so much time in devoted worship and celebration at church, and then to have time with family and friends to spend in quality fellowship out in the hopefully beautiful spring day filled with sunshine. In years past this has meant hiding Easter Eggs on my family's property of woods in Washington. This year, that was a bit different, but it still could not have been a more beautiful day.
On our early morning drive to the church, we saw the sun begin to rise over the one little hill near Mounds View. Obviously, this is no comparison to watching the sunrise over Mt. Rainier and the Cascades, but for one spring morning it was a beautiful thing. The four services at Cross of Hope went fantastically, and I heard so many people say they were fun and powerful. I am taking a little pride here (a terrible sin, I admit), since I crafted them all. But it was good feedback overall. The services included a lot of singing, the choir sounded great, and the duet I was in turned out nicely too. Plus, singing "Happy Birthday" to Allison four times wasn't so bad either. haha ...
I was not sure what to expect from Easter in a different church this year. I have been spoiled in year's past with how special its felt at my home church, and with how the cross is always in full bloom of beautiful flowers by Easter morning. At Cross of Hope, they create a life size display of a tomb and cross, which on Easter Morning are surrounded by Mums and Lillies, and the cross is all draped in white and gorgeous. The way the sanctuary is oriented, the sun shines at sunrise directly from the back of the sanctuary to the front on the cross. It was just so stunning and inspiring!
We were blessed by so many friends at church who helped us celebrate Allison's birthday, and then further blessed by a dear friend's invitation to spend Easter with her family. All in all, it was not quite an Easter back home, but it was special all the same. The most important thing, the message of hope and love was the same... Christ is Risen, Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
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