Today we celebrate – because today we are sons & daughters of a king – a king who conquered the grave. Today, we are free to live in joy & hope because our redeemer lives. Today – He is risen! He is risen indeed.

God seems to show up in the craziest places – and this morning was no exception. This Easter morning was another of God’s little reminders of His constant presence, and who He calls us to be.

Unfortunately, the reason for God needing to perform one of His little miracles was due to the extreme stupidity of my friends and I … but hey, what’s a road trip without Jesus in the passenger seat? 😉

This morning proved itself spontaneous, beautiful, and humbling. We set out before the sun came up driving 2 hours to spend the first moments of Easter eating donuts in a pretty little piece of the super bloom hills – a reminder of the artist we celebrate today. Seemed like a wonderful spiritually-awakening idea in my head. Now let’s paint a more realistic picture.

To make a long story short, after driving 2 hours with little to no cell service through the hills east of San Luis Obispo – the first thing to blow my mind wasn’t the flower fields – instead, I cursed in my head at the sight of Katelyn’s gas tank nearing empty …real nice.

Here we were, stranded in the middle of straight up nowhere, no cell service, some donuts, bibles – and an empty gas tank. We attempted to ignore our situation and soak in God’s freaking beautiful creation, plus some sugar, until we had to face the fact that we were doomed. Time to get empty tank as close to civilization as we possibly could.

Hills hills and more hills passed, with no sign of paved roads or people. Until… a tent, a shed, and what appeared to be a little family enjoying Easter breakfast around a campfire. It was a long shot, but perhaps this was our saving grace. Heads turned in confusion as three college girls in church dresses rudely interrupted a peaceful Easter morning.

A short hispanic man approached us, followed by 6 little kids. We explained the situation to him and he shook his head at our gas gauge, he immediately ran to the small shed in the distance and returned with a 3 gallon tank of gas – no strings attached. He even refused the $10 I tried to repay him with.

We spent the drive home in awe of our luck and the family’s generosity. It was clear they didn’t have much, and forking over 3 gallons of gas to a car full of strangers wasn’t the most ideal way for them to spend their money. I suppose that moment reassured me that you don’t need money, a reputation, a resume, whatever, to be God’s hands and feet.

This morning was filled with zillions of wildflowers and delicious donuts and good company, but what I will always remember about this Easter was our encounter with the family in the middle of nowhere. Today was such a good reminder that God always provides – and sometimes He provides from people or experiences we least expect. This Easter morning I was reminded how beautiful a heart is when it is humbled by God’s love. That in the tiny details, the random encounters, we are able to love people with a selfless, Godly love.

No mountain-moving metaphor or inspiring messages from me today. Just a simple reminder of the type of servants God calls us to be. A reminder that selfless love & relationships will always be more powerful than material wealth.

Oh, and in case you were wondering and we weren’t even a minute late for church at 10:30 😉