Happy Easter morn! The sun is trying to make a difference in the early chill air here in northern Illinois. It’s a hopeful sign.

(These tulip images are from a Holland, Michigan, visit a couple of years ago. No tulips here yet.)

Yesterday while running errands I had an old favorite CD playing in my car. (Do I betray my age to admit I’ve got lots of beloved CDs in my car?) When this song came on, my ears perked up at the words and I pondered how it speaks to Easter, even though I bet that wasn’t its original intent.

This is Chris Rice, whose musicality and lyrics I have loved for 20 years. And this is “The Final Move,” recorded in 2005. The song relates love, loss, questions, and hope … just when we think there’s no hope left. Which is pretty much what I imagine Jesus’s disciples thought when he, their hope for the future and for their very lives, was killed on the cross.

Lyrics are here; a link to a YouTube video is below.

“The Final Move” 
by Chris Rice

Saw an old guy today
Staring long at a chess game
Looked like it was half-played
Then his tear splashed between
The bishop and the king, oh
He turned his face to mine
I saw the Question in his eyes
I shrugged him half a smile and walked away
It made me sad, and it made me think
And now it makes me sing what I believe

It was love that set this fragile planet rolling
Tilting at our perfect twenty-three
Molecules and men infused with holy
Finding our way around the galaxy
And Paradise has up and flown away for now
But hope still breathes and truth is always true
And just when we think it’s almost over
Love has the final move
Love has the final move

Heard a young girl sing a song
To her daughter in her pale arms
Walking through a rainstorm
“Because you’re here my little girl
It’s gonna be a better world,” oh
She turned her face to mine
I saw the Answer in her eyes
I shrugged her half a smile and walked away
It made me smile, and it made me think
And now it makes me sing what I believe

It was love that set our fragile planet rolling
Tilting at our perfect twenty-three
Molecules and men infused with holy
Finding our way around the galaxy
And Paradise has up and flown away for now
But hope still breathes and truth is always true
And just when we think it’s almost over
Love has the final move
Love has the final move

(Something right went very wrong
But love has been here all along)

Over on YouTube, Jeff Ponke put together some beautiful images with The Final Move. I highly recommend listening and watching.

“‘In this world you will have trouble,’ said Jesus.
‘But take heart! I have overcome the world.'”
— John 16.33

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
— Romans 5.8

“God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death,
because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
— Acts 2.24

“The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.”
— John 1.5