Easter Without Any Traditions

Easter morning I dressed in my colorful Anthropology pants outfit with confetti-patterned top; azul-blue pants; and long, flowing, rust-colored sweater which looked like a celebratory party in fabric.  I also wore my 1.5”-oval, Ostrich-eggshell earrings to represent Easter eggs.  I didn’t really care if this new Fair Oaks Presbyterian church would be offended by my free spirited dress.  I was dressing for God, not people.  Easter is the Super bowl day of Christ followers---when the sacred lamb, Jesus, sacrificed himself as a sin offering, so that we could be worthy---forgiven of our sins---to enter Heaven via Him.  

During my walk from the parking boondocks to the large, popular church, I felt that it was just as extreme as some of those women in Easter hats and colorful dresses.  The church members greeted me with a nice welcome table and gave me a bag of promotional items like a “New Testament:  Psalms & Proverbs” NIV handbook.   I like reading the Torah and Tanuch, the Old Testament, with the New Testament, but the handbook was a nice gesture.

The Easter service began with the bell choir playing “Were You There.”  Thirteen women played two notes each with bells.  Tears came to the corners of my eyes while I listened to the beauty of their musical piece.  At times they changed bells to sustain bells which were quite a pleasure to hear.

Then the musical about Jesus rising from the tomb started.  It was like being in the audience of a TV church production.  I was just amazed at the professionally trained voices of the soloists.  The chancel (chamber) choir also sang “Hallelujah form Mount of Olives,” a beautiful 5 to 6 piece harmony by Beethoven.   They did such a wonderful job that I really wanted to become Presbyterian just to join that choir!

However, the main reason to join a church choir is to be a part of a church with a pastor or priest that has the messages from God that I need to hear.  The Fair Oaks Presbyterian pastor delivered.  His message was “Are You In?”  He was quite colorful, expressive, and charismatic.  He definitely is a potential pastor for me.  I will have to go to a few more regular services to see if he can keep up his freshness and zest.

Verbally wrestling reluctant Drew, I tried to get him to answer, “Are You In?” but in regards to going to Blair’s house for Easter supper.   He eventually was and we arrived with a few boundaries.  Drew knew that Blair and I just liked having him around.  I knew that I needed to steer Blair to ask more questions of Drew instead of talk about her medical issues.  Drew wanted his presence to matter.  He wanted to be more than a listener, but a sharer of his life, too.

Drew enjoyed the amazing Easter supper of orange duck, broccoli, and couscous and some of the conversation.  I did manage to steer some of Blair’s conversations toward learning about Drew, but our family’s ability to talk about ourselves is quite engrained.  I’m just glad that my kids and ex-husband did an intervention on me to make me aware of my lack of conversational ability.  Now I can try to improve that.

After supper Drew sprinted back to San Francisco State University.  Our Easter was quite different today.  I went to church by myself.  We had no Easter egg hunts, except mine to find my Ostrich-egg-shell earrings.  We didn’t have an enormous feast with my cousin, Alice.  We just had a different Easter.  It’s a new life to settle upon new traditions.
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