Church Bells

Church bells ringing, they wake me. I look around, my house is dark and I cannot see a thing. I open the window blinds, it is also too dark outside to see anything. My phone informs me it is half past three in the morning. Disoriented, I wonder why the bells are ringing so early, perhaps I am dreaming? Apparently to say, wake up - it is time to prepare for church. They keep on ringing for what seems like an hour – they do not want me going back to bed. I wonder who is ringing the bell and why they are not tired yet, perhaps there are several people taking turns. I fall back asleep. The alarm on my phone starts ringing. It is now a quarter to five. Church starts in fifteen minutes. I contemplate closing my eyes and falling back asleep. A knock at my door, then at my window, “Wake up Taylor, it is time for church.” says Maishe. Giving in to the peer pressure and my interest as to why we are having church at five in the morning, I wake up and quickly prepare myself for the Resurrection Sunday church service.

This early in the morning, the sun had not yet risen. We made our way to the church, which is illuminated by a few candles at the altar. Surprisingly, rather in hindsight not so unexpectedly, there were only a couple dozen people in attendance for the service. Despite the darkness in the church, how few were in attendance, and the lack of sleep, the service was alive – loud, energetic, and joyful. After receiving Holy Communion, worship was brought to a closing and together we made our way outside.

Church bells begin to ring again. This time they are signaling the beginning of our processional to the graveyard. Singing, dancing, clapping, and whistling all the way to the graveyard, our numbers started to increase as community members joined in. At the entrance, we paused for a word of prayer. We then made our way into the graveyard, fists full of flowers to decorate the graves of family members. I wondered what the significance of the Easter weekend was in placing flowers on the graves. Asking several individuals, the most frequent answer was simply to decorate the graveyard – to make it look nice. But why on Easter? A few answered with a variation of it symbolizing Jesus’ resurrection on this day. I believe we decorated the graves not only to symbolize Jesus rising from the dead, but to also remember those who have passed on before us and the promise of eternal life we have through Jesus Christ.

It was a beautiful morning. As I watched the sun rise on this day, I envisioned the Son of God rising up from the dead, bringing more meaning to the early morning service. More and more people kept coming to the graveyard, those who had finished placing their flowers gathered outside the entrance talking with one another. Since I did not have family members buried in the graveyard, many of my friends took me by the hand and invited me to meet their relatives who are buried here and place flowers upon their graves. One might think being in a graveyard all morning could lead to a dismal attitude, but instead we were celebrating this day and everyone seemed to be quite happy – celebrating God’s promise.