Easter Sunday

Praise the Lord!

Today is the day!!!

Today Jesus won his victory over death, and rose from the grave!

Alleluia!

I was feeling a little lost this morning, because we are so far away from the fantastic church Seren and I now call 'our' church, and I was worried about how I'd feel going to the CofW (Church of Wales, like Church of England) Church my Mum currently attends, for the Easter Sunday service.

So while I was getting ready for Church, I was playing some of my worship songs on my mp3 player, and then while I was doing Seren's hair, I was singing one of my favourite Easter hymns to her. It's a hymn I sang a few times at my original Baptist church, but it was one I never forgot. It wasn't often sung, but it had a huge impact on me, and I would have loved to have heard it again, so I was singing it to Seren.

And then I quickly said a prayer. "Lord, I want to praise You on this most special of days, the day You conquered death, but I'm nervous about going to this new church, because I know it'll be so different from the Baptist church I love. Help me to feel Your presence, even in this different church, let me know that You are there." And that was when I had the idea. I asked Jesus to show me that He was there by having my favourite Easter hymn as one of the hymns for the day.

I didn't really think it would be, in all honesty, because I haven't heard it in years, at least 15 years I'm sure, so I didn't think it was very well-known or popular. So I told myself that if it wasn't one of the hymns today, I wouldn't be too disappointed.

So. We went to the church. And it was a very alien service. Lots of repetition and reading from booklets and unfamiliar hymns. I was trying my best to find the message in the service, and to feel connected to God, but it wasn't happening much at first.

The best bits were a) the sermon, which wasn't stuffy at all, in contrast to the whole first section of the service, and b) the tiny baby getting baptised mid-service, which Seren really enjoyed seeing. But apart from that, I was feeling pretty lost and disconnected. So I kept praying, and kept missing 'our' church, because I bet they had a fabulous service today.

Towards the end of the service, they had communion. Only for those baptised, which I'm not, yet. But those who weren't able to have communion could have a blessing, so Seren and I went up and knelt at the altar for a blessing.

While we were being blessed, they were singing a hymn which I knew a little, which was encouraging, and so when we sat down, I sang the rest of that hymn. When the introduction for the next hymn started, I froze in shock. It sounded awfully like the introduction to my hymn!

So I grabbed up my hymn book, scrabbled to the right page, and stared in disbelief at the words to my favourite hymn!

THEY WERE SINGING IT!!!!!!!!!!

And here it is:

Led Like a Lamb to the Slaughter, by Graham Kendrick

Tears sprang to my eyes, and I said a fervent prayer of thanks to the Lord, right then and there, before kissing Seren on the forehead and telling her that Jesus WAS there, right there with us, that He'd given me my sign!

Even though it was mostly the choir singing, rather than the congregation, of whom probably only half were singing, I was BELTING OUT that song with a heart full of joy! When I needed it the very very most, Jesus gave me the hugest sign I could ever wish for, on his Re-Birthday!

And I immediately went from worrying that I was going to leave the service as hungry for the Lord as when I went in, I was suddenly feeling just as close to Him as I do at any of 'our' church services!

Thank you Jesus!