He is Risen!

From the time I was young, I have always said that Easter is hands down, my favorite day of the year. It trumps my birthday, Christmas, teacher inservice days, and even the 4th of July fireworks--and since the time I've been about 10, that has been the case. (Before that, nothing really beat Santa, I'll be honest...) And really, even as a kid, while the easter bunny was always cool, and easter morning surprises were wonderful, the thing that makes the day stand out above all the rest is not the candy, the easter baskets, the egg hunts or the family dinner. It's the trumpet fanfare that announces the resurrection of Christ and the congregation rising to proclaim that Christ the Lord is indeed risen today. I'm a person that loves tradition, I like things to be the same year after year, and while some may say that is boring, I beg to differ. I think there is somthing reassuring and comforting in our crazy and chaotic world when certain traditions are held. I still get chills down my back when I walk in to a sanctuary, pretty much any sanctuary, and see the alter, which three days earlier had been stipped bare and covered in black, now adorned with Easter lillies, white alter cloths, and candles. And then the service starts. I think I must have been a fairly nerdy kid (ok, I know I was a fairly nerdy kid--I still am....) but I remember LOVING going to the Good Friday service, sitting in silence as the altar is stipped bear and covered in black, and watching as the cross that always stood next to the communion table was shrouded in a black veil and carried down the aisle and out of the sanctuary. I loved that night because I knew that Sunday morning I would come in, find the space fully decorated, and would wait for the opening strains of Lift High the Cross--which would be our cue to stand, turn and face the back of the church and wait for the cross, now very much without it's black veil, as it processed down the aisle. While I haven't been to a church that has been big on processionals in quite awhile now, I never get tired of hearing the pastor proclaim for the first time that "Christ is Risen!" Each year, it is always the same--as we join together to sing Christ the Lord is Risen Today I feel like we are given a tiny glimpse into heaven where we will one day, spend eternity proclaiming:

Christ the Lord is risen today!

Sons of men and angels say

Raise your joys and triumphs high!

Sing ye heaven and earth reply....

Lives again our glorious king

Where, O death, is now thy sting?

Dying once, He all doth save

Where thy victory, O grave?

Love's redeeming work is done

Fought the fight, the battle won,

Death in vain forbids Him rise,

Christ has opened Paradise.

Soar we now, where Christ has led,

Foll'wing our exalted Head;

Made like Him, like Him we rise,

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies...

Alleluia!

Here are some random photos from Easter 2007....my day started at 7am when I joined Becca, Sophie, and Jenn for San Marino's Sunrise Service at Lacy Park before heading over to Burbank for First Pres' service.

You know you have too much in common when you show up wearing the same shirt....

Hey, we're still cute! The butterfly necklace was a gift from Sophie in time for Easter and Cursillo this next week...
Then it was off to Burbank to celebrate with my church family there...putting together the flower cross is a multi-generational event that gets to involve the entire community, and it was gorgeous when it was finished!
Who wouldn't want to be welcomed by such a wonderful greeting team??