I decided to go to the Easter sunrise worship service this
morning at my church. I’ve never been to
an Easter sunrise service, and I thought it might be nice to experience and see
what happens at a worship service so early in the morning (6:30 am).
My only reservation about going to the sunrise service was
that it was so early. I’m not the
biggest morning person, so I was a bit reluctant to set my alarm clock for such
an early hour when I could have easily slept in.
But I set my alarm clock, got up when it went off, and got
ready for church. However, my hair
wouldn’t cooperate. I had to slightly modify
my planned outfit because it was too chilly outside to wear the late
spring/summer outfit I had planned. I
couldn’t decide which shoes to wear and when I had decided I had trouble
locating them. All this wouldn’t
normally be a big deal, but my brain takes a while to wake up and wasn’t up to
full functioning mode at this point.
When I finally grabbed my purse and turned to walk out the
door, I saw the clock: 6:29. I live
close to my church, but not that
close. So I was going to be late. Out the door.
I turned the key in the ignition, my car dinged at me impatiently to
tell me to put my seatbelt on, I flipped on the wipers to remove the morning
dew from my front and rear windows.
Car in reverse. Car
in drive. Left turn. Right turn.
Then another right turn to the east, and there it was. The sun rising. Bright and beautiful coming up above the
horizon.
I had the urge to pull the car over, jump out of the car,
and stand in the middle of the street and look in wonder at that sun
rising. But I was already 2 minutes late
and standing in the middle of the street seemed like a bad idea, so I kept
driving. But I smiled a big smile and
drove on in a state of astonishment at that sun rising. I kept looking through the houses to catch a
glimpse of the sun.
I’ve seen the sun rise before, but seeing the sun rise this
morning just had a different feel in the midst of my hectic efforts to try to
wake up and get to church on time looking halfway decent.
I had a little conversation with God during the rest of my
drive to church. (And just for the record,
God didn’t speak to me in audible way like God does to Moses in the 10 Commandments
movie.)
I said to God with the excitement and wonder of a three year
old, “The sun is rising!!!”
God replied to me in a strong, calm, and collected voice,
“Of course the sun is rising, Melissa.
It rises every single day. Did
you doubt it would rise today?”
I replied, still with that wonder and eagerness of a three
year old, “Well, I guess I figured it would rise today. But it’s rising right now and I get to see
it!!!”
God replied to me “Of course the sun is rising now on your
way to church. That’s why they call it the
Easter Sunrise service.”
God has a real sense of humor sometimes (perhaps most of the
time). With this sense of humor and with
all the knowledge and wisdom of God, God knew what I needed this morning. A simple (yet profound) sunrise, the perfect
timing to see it, and enough lucidness (at 6:30 in the morning) to recognize
the beauty and miracle of the sunrise on this Easter morning and on the first
Easter morning two millenniums ago.
