My Resurrection God

Easter Sunrise Service Aboard USS Duane 1944

1 Peter 1:3-9

New International Version (NIV)

Praise to God for a Living Hope

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Because the young man who lives in our house but doesn't want to be blogged about likes our town's Easter Sunrise Service, we attended yesterday as a family.  It was an unusually lovely morning with the sun rising just as the service began.  Still we were dressed in layers of clothing and wrapped in blankets against the cold.  There's something about sacrificing sleep for worship that can lead my thoughts down the sanctimonious rabbit trail, imagining myself extra spiritual for simply getting up in the morning.   Oh, my, how conceited is that, when my Jesus had suffered the cross for me!  

As the service continued, memories of the sacrifices that members of the body of Christ have made came to mind.  My youth group once met in a cow pasture for the Easter sunrise, and while we were soulfully singing, "Morning Has Broken," women were back in the church kitchen preparing a lovely breakfast for us.  I didn't appreciate then as much as I appreciate it now, not the sacrifice of attending a service, but rather the sacrifice of service.  My youth pastor,  standing with crutches, because of childhood polio, preached while a horse read over his shoulder and we giggled.  He is now dealing with both post polio syndrome and cancer.  The woman who filled my orange juice glass that morning walks bent over with age and pain as she faithfully enters the House of the Lord.  What a resurrection celebration there will be when those two saints march into Heaven!

I'd like to be in their number.

"Morning Has Broken" - Michael Card