Easter service humor

I'll be honest--I'm not a morning person. But yesterday was Easter, and our family always attends the Sunrise Service. In Clay City, where my husband pastors, many of the churches get together each year for a community Sunrise Service. It's always a beautiful event and well-attended.

Since we live in Jasonville, we have a twenty minute drive to Clay City. We intended on leaving at 6:30 to arrive a few minutes before 7:00. I figured my husband, the early riser of the family, would wake us all up in time to get ready. He did not. I actually woke up on my own at about ten after six. None of the kids were up. We had to leave in twenty minutes, and I barely had time to throw on some clothes and brush my teeth.

Erick and I scurried around, placing the gift bags of chocolate and other goodies on the table in the kids' places, as we do every year. Then we woke them up so they could see their gifts, and told them to hurry up and get dressed because by that time we had to leave in about five minutes.

We actually did make it to church on time. It was at the Methodist church this year, and they had just started playing the organ as we walked in. Of course, with our size of family, we needed a whole pew to ourselves, and there weren't many empty pews. I found one up near the front that was still empty. For some reason, the front seats in church seem to be reserved for those who are late. So our bedraggled kids who had just crawled out of bed trailed after us into the pew, looking like bunch of orphans. Some of them hadn't even combed their hair.

It was a beautiful service. Each pastor in the community played a part. My husband's part was the prayer. We were all standing at that point in the service, having just finished singing a hymn. The floor in the sanctuary was sloped, and I was wearing high heels. I was also starting to feel a little bit woozy. I had eaten nothing but two marshmallow peeps that morning, and my sugar high was wearing off. As my husband went forward to pray, I decided I had better sit down.

When I sat, so did the rest of my kids. When our whole pew sat, so did the people behind us. Within seconds, the entire church had followed our lead and sat down with a great swoosh. It was kind of funny, actually, because everyone was looking at each other like, "Are we supposed to sit?" In the end, those who seemed to think that it was proper to remain standing for the prayer succumbed to the pressure to do what everyone else was doing. And to think I started it all.

Despite this somewhat humourous beginning to our Easter, we had a wonderful day, probably one of the best we've had. God is so good to us and we just spent the day enjoying Him and thanking Him for His gifts to us. I hope you all had a blessed Easter as well.