Well here we are in Easter Week, the time when I always think the world, and everything in it is right, and good, and happy.  We celebrate this sacred and liberating truth that Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, has conquered evil and deflected the conspiracy of the self-protecting powerful. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the epitome of God’s promise to love us no matter what, is now resurrected and engaged with us in a new and mysterious way. “Peace be with you,” is his greeting to us.

For us, in the Northern Hemisphere, who are experiencing the opening of the earth in Spring, we can simply look out the window and see the promise of God fulfilled in budding trees, greening forsythia, popping snow drops, crocus and jonquils.

Blue skies above us, even when the clouds are grey, when we are held captive by a global pandemic. Blue skies even in the midst of shortages, anxiety about our jobs, our savings, our health. Blue skies even when we wear a mask to protect others from ourselves. Even then, the sky is blue, it is always blue above the storm, above rain, and wind and yes, even above death all around us.

I have been so aware of how blue the sky is, on sunny days, when all around us is news of Covid-19, when we worry about loved ones, friends and family.  The entire way in which we move through life is changed. As if we are in a warp in the universe, a communal nightmare from which we cannot awaken.

Blue skies above us even then, even now.

Do not let the power of this pandemic keep you from seeing blue skies. Do not let this pandemic rob you of the exuberance of Easter, of the joy and yes, conviction that Jesus Christ is in fact Risen. And in the same way, WE are risen, we are a risen people who carry within us the presence of Jesus, Risen from the dead.  Death has no victory — all you need do is look for the blue skies that are there, even when clouds are grey.

This is no Pollyanna thinking. Watch for blue skies to lift you, to return you to the exuberance of Easter as you have always known it. Easter is in you. You only need a simple sign that God is with you. You only need to spend more than a minute looking at blue skies. Then you will know, as you have always known, that God is smiling at you.

To show you what I mean, watch this YouTube of Frank Sinatra singing Blue Skies, by Irving Berlin. If you can’t do that, just read the lyrics. I dare you not to be lifted up.

Blue skies
Smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies
Do I see

Bluebirds
Singing a song
Nothing but bluebirds
All day long

Never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you’re in love, my how they fly

Blue days
All of them gone
Nothing but blue skies
From now on

I never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going oh-so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you’re in love, my how they fly

Blue days
All of them gone
Nothing but blue skies
From now on