Easter has always
been a special day for me, starting with the four years we lived at LaPrairie,
Illinois. Each Easter, Daddy took a picture of us in front of the manse’s bay
window. I was just a little girl, and although I have some good memories of
living in LaPrairie, I don’t remember anything else about those early Easters.
It was different when
we moved to DeTour Village, Michigan. There was no bay window, and I’m only
aware of the one Easter photo taken in our living room the first year. But I have
fond memories of the Easters we spent there.
Those seven Easters
all followed the same routine. We started the day with a sunrise service, which
had its own sermon and hymn selection. That was followed by a congregational
breakfast. Then there was a break, during which we went back home and searched
for the hard-boiled eggs we had decorated the night before. After adding them
to the jelly beans in our cereal bowls (we each had our own color), we headed
back to church for Sunday School and the regular Easter service.
When I grew up,
married, and had children, Easter still had a pattern. We attended the 7:00
a.m. service, followed by a congregational breakfast. However, there were two
major differences from my childhood Easters. First, Caroline and John did their
Easter egg hunt as soon as they got up because the choir sang at multiple
services and they would have been too impatient to wait until I got home. Second,
the 7:00 a.m. service had the same liturgy, hymns, and sermon as the later
ones. I miss having two distinct services on Easter morning, and I probably always
will.
The children are
grown up, now, but I still sing in the choir and eat breakfast at church between
services. It’s a nice tradition.
Easter is far more
than a tradition, however. Easter is the day we celebrate Christ’s resurrection.
As it says in I Corinthians 15:17-20 (ESV):
17And if Christ has
not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18Then
those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19If in this
life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20But in fact Christ
has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
HE IS RISEN INDEED!
ALLELUIA!
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