Easter Sunday on the South Side
Oh, woe to those who don't live in our little town. Sunday morning the alarm clock rang at 5:30 am. I stumbled out of bed to get to church so I could get the coffe plugged in. The sunlight was just fading into the sky and I thought about the family and friends that were down at Bellerive Park for the Sunrise Service. This little park is a perfect place to watch the sun come up as the view to the east is introduced my the Mighty Mississippi River, then slowly told by the flat terrain of western Illinois. I've yet to make this service because I'm always back at church getting their breakfast ready. On this chilly morning I knew they wouldn't be long. I was right; they showed up ready to eat at ten after seven.
Tom Boyer and his wife, who live on the corner of Bellerive and Louisiana are always the first to arrive. Tom is a veteran of the Korean War and he will always approach me to say, "Do you need help with anything?"
"No, thanks, Tom, just have a seat; we're almost ready."
About twenty more will follow in. Then a little later about thirty more who decided to sleep in come in dressed in their new spring colors. I say "Kinda chilly out there, eh?" about a hundred times.
Breakfast is served. Twenty years in the restaurant/catering business has made this morning easy and I love to to do it.
I have some breakfast myself, then it's upstairs to practice for the Worship Service. I tune my guitar, we run through the songs, then I come out of the choir room to see a full sanctuary. So many people! I know it's Easter, the energy is just stunning. The tulips are perfect and tell a story of Beth Meyer, my aunt, who did these flowers for as long as I can remember. She died this past year and I thought of her all through the service as I gazed at the flowers.
The choir was pumped because of all the people, not to mention we were going to do a couple of songs from our big show last week and we knew them well. Musicians long for moments when their music can move the emotions. Easter morning, we were there.
After church we went over to my dad's house. Everybody was there. I mean EVERYBODY. It's not often that my dad and Judy's whole family gets together. All of Judy's kids were there. All of my cousins from my dad's side were there too. And the kids! My God the kids!
And Ken Meyer brought a special friend. Her name is Lisa Mitchell and she's a life-time member of Kingshighway Methodist. Turns out they dated after high school. Now they're both divorced. So, most of us know her very well. Her and Ken are co-leading the youth group. She has two kids; a daughter named Ashley who is a little younger than Emily and a son named Kieth who's the same age as Emily. Kieth is headed for either West Point or Annapolis. To me, this is a sign that our little church has "bounced." That is, we didn't hit bottom, we bounced off of it. In its hey-day, this church had a youth group that produced the core group of families that I grew up with. They married each other and my generation is a result of that, but there's just about three of us left. But, it's building back up now. We had our first baby, Luke Trask, about four years ago, and now Ken and Lisa may be a sign that we've bounced back.
All in all, a great Easter Sunday. As I said in an earlier entry, the more I grow in my faith, the more Easter grows to be the central holiday of the year for me. Remember, the stone that covered Jesus' tomb was not rolled away so he could get out. It was rolled away so that you could see in.
