Open up!

Happy Easter! Today is the climax of everything for Christians: a victory parade, in fact. Few greater songs can be sung than those I've just been warbling at the top of my voice in the dining room, watching the BBC's long-running series Songs of Praise in their celebration of Easter from Lincoln Cathedral, in Eastern England. Probably one of the most popular of Easter hymns, set to the tune Judas Maccabeus by Handel, says it all:

Thine be the glory
Risen Conquering Son
Endless is the victory
Thou o'er death hast won.

Easter Day celebrates the wonderful possibility and potential of humanity that, no matter how low we may seem to sink-even into the grave itself- there is the tantalising, exciting possibility of a life that never ends if we but recognise the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

April is the month of openings- that's what the word originally meant. Out in my back garden, the silver birch has burst forth with its catkins and all around trees and gardens are springing to life. But no matter how marvellous each springtime catwalk of daffodils, bluebells and blossom may seem, the greatest marvel is that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that we might live and love forever. And that's surely something to sing about!