He Has Risen

He has risen indeed!

I am going to be completely honest here and say that I have been dreading Easter this whole week. I know, I know, that sounds terrible. Just let me explain. This time last year I was in Zuni, New Mexico with an amazing group of students and teachers from my school on a mission trip. It was my first Easter away from home, which was hard because my family loves holidays and getting together with everyone is the best. However, it ended up being the best Easter I have ever had. Not only was I surrounded by the most loving people I have ever known, I was also in the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We had ourselves a little sunrise service Easter morning and it was grand. Still in our PJ's and with our loving morning voices, we went outside and sang the best we could to praise our amazing God. We then walked around the building that we were staying in and with awe in our eyes and peace in our hearts, we watched the sun slowly rise over the Mesa. There was something very magical about that moment. (Maybe magical is a cheesy word to use here, but there is honestly no other word to describe it). Later on that morning we attended church with families in the neighborhood and afterwords we were treated to lunch. After lunch we got to do what we all came there for, to play with the Zuni children. Thinking back on that day just makes me so happy, because I believe that's what God wants on Easter Sunday. For his people to come together and celebrate and be joyful in His house.

So you're probably wondering, Cierra, why did all of that make you dread Easter this year? The answer is simple… because I'm not there right now. How selfish, right? Here I am making today about me and how displeased I am that I'm here and not in Zuni. So here I am in San Francisco, contemplating if I even want to get out of bed when my alarm goes off because I thought no service would ever compare to last years. Completely loosing sight over what Easter truly is about, I force myself to get dressed and head out the door. Knowing that my church was holding their service in the San Francisco Opera House, you would think I would have been more excited. But there I was on the bus thinking, I wish I wasn't here. So I take my seat in the balcony and just kind of sit there, not really looking around or anything. They then asked us to rise for worship and that was when I looked around. Full house. The whole opera house was FULL. There are 3,146 seats available and they were all taken. 3,000+ people gathering to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus?  Now that is something to celebrate about. The service was good, but I'm going to keep being honest here that wasn't the best part. The best part was when we started singing. Hearing all of those voice sing as one for our Father was KILLER. Literally, because it was actually a pretty hard slap in the face for me.

So yeah, it wasn't Zuni. But it was San Francisco. And next year it will be something totally different and I can't wait. I can't wait to celebrate with new people in a new place but all for the same person.

Zuni team 2013, taking a break from our hike for a picture 

Easter 2014, San Francisco Opera House