Growing up in southern Ohio, Easter was the magic date at which white shoes could be worn again. Hidden away in the closet or brand new out of the box, white shoes were donned by little girls in twirly skirted dresses and women in flowery, sometimes veiled hats. It was a beautiful sight……families filed out of their houses in their new spring finery. To wear white shoes before Easter Sunday was a definite fashion faux pas.

Perhaps I am thinking about white shoes because of the cold that doesn’t seem to want to leave.There was certainly the visibility of Easter fashion at church on Sunday but it was quickly covered up by winter coats, warm hats and heavy gloves. This rite of spring……. of new clothes, bright colors, flowery prints, white shoes……marks not only the change of season but a sense of freedom and lightness of being that leads to summer.

I am reminded of the apostle Paul who said that we are "to put on the clothes of Christ". I believe Easter Sunday can be the time to "re-up" what it means to be a faithful person in the world. At the sunrise service we sang a song that had the line "Love lives again" as a way of talking about the resurrection. We handed out green ribbons and invited people to pin them on one another with the affirmation that, indeed, Love lives again. Hopefully every time people saw the ribbon on their Easter clothes they were reminded that we are, each of us, called to witness to this Love which moves and has life in the world….through us, to us, in us and for us.

Easter may be the time to pull out our white shoes but it is also the time to remember to wear our hearts on our sleeves. God knows the world needs such Love…..God knows we do, too.