So I think this was the first Easter Vigil ever where I sang the Song of the Three Young Men (including the lines "You frost and cold, bless the Lord; you ice and snow, bless the Lord") when there was ice and snow right outside the window next to me.
And then shortly before sundown on Easter, after all the kids had left, I looked out the window, and what did I see? Snow. More snow than mere flurries. Snow dumping out of the sky. It had been warm enough that it didn't stick to the deck for more than a few minutes. But still.
Yoo hoo! Spring? Where are you?
But you know what was cool? On Easter morning, with all the grey skies and the cloud cover, there was not a hint of being able to tell where the sun was hiding behind those thick clouds. And as the organist was playing the intro to "Thanks to Thee, O Christ Victorious" I was hearing the [ahem] real first verse to that hymn (TLH 207) which is:
Like the golden sun ascending,
breaking through gloom of night,
on the earth its glory spending
so that darkness takes to flight,
thus my Jesus from the grave
and death's dismal dreadful cave
rose triumphant Easter morning
at the early purple dawning.
And that was when the sun broke through for all of about two minutes. Just long enough to shed light on that hymn! Like the sun and the creation just had to bust in and join the celebration indoors at the altar!
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We had a moment like that at my father-in-law's funeral a few years ago. It was a cloudy day, but during the Nunc Dimittis, right after we sang "a light to lighten the Gentiles" and were beginning the Gloria Patri, the sun came out from behind the clouds and streamed in through the chapel window. I'll never forget that.
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