When I was a kid, we lived across the street from an enormous park.  One of my favorite activities with friends was flying kites.  My favorite kite belonged to my friend Mary.  It had the Green Giant on it (think vegetables), and there was a second piece to the kite, Little Sprout.  We hooked Little Sprout on the string, and when the wind caught him, it slide him along the string all the way up to the airborne kite!  If you tipped the kite just right into the wind, you could release Little Sprout from the string and send him floating down to earth. The fun was in the finding afterward.  Sometimes we just slide pieces of paper up the string.  We even made homemade kites!  Flying kites, we spent the whole day looking up into the sky.

When I reflect on the stories surrounding Easter, there is a lot of “looking up.”  When Jesus taught his disciples, He cautioned them about His return, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” As Mary wept in the garden, she didn’t recognize Jesus until she looked up.  After Jesus had appeared to his disciples, He was taken up into heaven (Mark 16:19). The disciples were asked by the angels at Jesus’ ascension, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”” (Acts 1:11).

As we enter into Easter and then the 50 days of Pentecost afterward, where are you looking?  UP is a great place to focus!

To remind us that we are Easter people who are hopefully and expectantly waiting for the return of Jesus, may I suggest that this Easter season you plan to fly a kite?   You can either scour Walmart, the internet, or make one yourself.  Just google “How to make a kite” and you will find several tutorials.  What style of kite you like and what materials you have on hand will probably determine which one you choose to make.  Regardless, be a person who participates in “looking up.”

As you fly, consider these additional verses for meditation:

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.  (Isaiah 40:26)

And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.  (Matt. 14:19)

For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”  (John 6:40)

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  (Acts 7:55)

- Lynn Black