Easter Sunrise Service

In the book, I briefly reference that my mama woke me early on Easter morning, and she and I made a 20-mile round trip drive from Brookwood Road to a Sunrise Service on the shore of Lake Lanier at Bald Ridge Marina just outside the city limits of my hometown, Cumming, GA. It was the first - not the only - worship experience of our day.

If you are wondering why my two younger brothers and my daddy didn't make this pre-dawn journey, well, I have no idea.

That was almost 50 years ago.
That very same Sunrise Service continues to this day.
If you are a follower of Jesus, there's more than a little irony in that with all the seismic changes to my hometown of Cumming, GA (in the Atlanta metroplex) and to the Brookwood Road area - one very real constant is the Easter Sunrise Service at Bald Ridge Marina. (You know . . . the more our Earthly surroundings change the stronger the reminder that the love of God through His son Jesus remains constant).

The Sunrise Service has always been an ecumenical service. It is hosted by the Cumming United Methodist Church and open to all. Per the church's website, the Sunrise Service will begin this year at 7 a.m. and church pastor Jeff Ross will officiate it. The chapel at Bald Ridge Marina has been upgraded, and here's a photograph of it today. Here's a link to the chapel website.

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To make that 7 a.m. service back in the 1960s, my mama would have to wake me about 5:45 a.m. because it took 20-30 minutes to make the drive from Brookwood Road to Bald Ridge Marina.

She would allow me to have one quick look in and through my Easter basket before we left home in the pre-dawn darkness. I loved those malted milk bird eggs, and I dug around in my basket until I had a handful of them for the trip to the Sunrise Service. I did notice the deck of playing cards that I received every single year as if my future was to be a Vegas Black Jeack dealer. Among the malted bird eggs, the marshmallow bunnies, the big hollow chocolate bunny, and M&Ms there was usually a Matchbox car or a puzzle. (I love jigsaw puzzles though I disdain group puzzling.) There was always a baseball or a wooden 28-inch baseball bat in or on my basket. Each year, I either got the ball or the bat, and my brother Tim got the other.

We got home from the Sunrise Service by 8:30 a.m., and Daddy usually was far along in his preparing a pancake breakfast. He loved pancakes with melted butter oozing down between slices in the pancakes. We had to leave home by 9:30 for a return trip to Cumming, where we attended Sunday School and worship at the First Baptist Church. The rest of the day was spent eating and hunting eggs with family and then with friends. It was a full, full day.

And, we wore our brand new "Sunday clothes" all day long because at any moment someone might shout, "Let's have a picture" and we would jump in formation as if it was the first Easter photograph of the morning. For 55 years, I've been a part of a family Easter photograph occurring just before or after Sunday church services. It's a big deal. Even today, no one changes clothes until the family photograph is taken.

Hope you and yours have a blessed Easter 2015, and celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus. SDV