Up on the Mountaintop on Easter Morning

Last night at around midnight, Mercy informed me that there was to be a sunrise service on the up on one of the many mountains surrounding Albertville at 6:30 this morning.

It would be utterly absurd to pass up a chance to watch the sun rising over the mountains on an Easter morning. Of course I went.

5:30 this morning (which felt like 4:30 due to daylight's savings time which went into effect last night) I woke up. Forty-five minutes later, Kathryn and Mercy stepped outside into the rain. Obviously, this situation called for an umbrella. Mine is broken, Mercy didn't have hers with her, but thankfully there was one extra one which I pointed out to Mercy. 

Mercy - "Um, that one doesn't work."

Kathryn - "It sure looks like it opens."

Mercy - "Exactly. That's it's problem."

Sure enough, it opened into the most oddly shaped umbrella I think I've ever seen. But it was better than nothing, and so off we went feeling like the bad nannies in Mary Poppins with our dysfunctional black umbrella into the dark, rainy morning to celebrate that Jesus is alive. Over the course of the walk, it slowly began to dawn on me that no dawn would rise over us if it continued to be this overcast...

We got to the church. It was 6:30. No one was there but the rain and our pitiful umbrella.

After a bit of waiting, one of the worship leaders came. He informed us that the Pastor wasn't able to come due to his newborn baby. After a bit more waiting, we determined that no one else was coming, so up the mountain we went. Up and up and up and UP. Lots of very bendy mountain roads. Halfway up, the rain turned to snow. Not small little flakes drifting lazily out of the sky kind of a snow...no, it was nothing short of a blizzard. 

Eventually we stopped. Mercy was carsick from all the bendy roads. I was getting to that point myself, but the exhaustion was more overwhelming than the carsickness. Both of us were more in an unconscious dream-state than anything else. We managed to get out of the car, up the road a bit to the "lookout" spot where you have an utterly spectacular view of Mont Blanc, the mountains, the sun rising, the city way far, far down below. In theory you have that view, anyways. Not so much when you can barely see two feet in front of you due to the blizzard conditions.

Mercy noticed that I was shaking violently from the cold. She kindly gave me her blanket. Problem was, it was an African sort of a blanket meaning that it was actually just a colorful piece of paper thin fabric. The three of us sang a few songs, prayed a little bit, and then dashed back into the relative warmth of the car. 

The ride back was positively miserable for poor Mercy who was downright carsick. Thankfully, I was too tired for carsickness and could only lie there in a sad little ball of exhaustion and frigidness. An hour, a few minutes, some seconds, three days, who knows how much later someone was waking me up and telling me we were back home. I stumbled, barely conscious, back into the building. Didn't even make it into my room, but collapsed in a heap on the couch in the living room. The next thing I remember is someone shouting my name, informing me that we were leaving for church in 45 more minutes.

An Easter morning to remember. 

How wonderful is it that no matter how pathetically cold and miserable an Easter morning may possibly be that still the resurrection of our Lord and Savior was and is more glorious than a multitude of sunrises over the Alps. 

From there, it was a church service at a more decent hour of the morning with more than three people in attendance in a well-heated building. I must admit, in my delirium, I did struggle a bit to stay awake, and it just wasn't quite the same as worshipping with my Knox family, but it was still good. Very good indeed. The sun eventually decided that it was going to come out from behind the clouds after all, and the powdered sugar dusting of the mountains way up high were proof that we hadn't dreamt up the blizzard that morning. 

The Cropsey family welcomed Mercy, Rachel and myself into their home for a sumptuous feast that was greatly appreciated and much enjoyed.

And so now Easter in France is over. No school tomorrow, which means a McCropder kid Easter egg hunt and celebrations for Sarah's birthday! I missed you all back home very much today and thought of you often in your many celebrations. The annual Easter party is probably just ending now...

Also, thanks to all for your many comments on the last post. I've had some really wonderful discussions continued via private messages with many of you that I am very thankful for! Keep the feedback coming.