This morning I had the blessing to preach at Bok Tower’s Sunrise Easter service. It was great for that service to be back. It was wonderful to be there in the still of the morning, with the sun coming up and all its natural beauty stirring to greet the new day; the trees, the flowers, the greenery, the birds and animals, even the insects. It is all so very, very beautiful. And it isn’t just nature alone. Florida woods have their beauty, but this is quite different.

A garden, any garden, is a fusion of natural and human design, where nature and humanity come together. And this isn’t just any garden. Edward Bok had a vision. He wanted to thank this great nation for all the opportunity it had given him by creating a place of exquisite beauty. He hired the best people he could find to make it real. They cleared away a lot and brought in a lot. They enhanced the native trees and plants with new plants and flowers. They designed the paths winding through them to encourage pauses to absorb the beauty. Those gardens have been carefully maintained, refreshed and renewed by gifted horticulturalists and grounds crew ever since.

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Early in Jesus’ ministry he preached at the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. He read a passage from Isiah which began with these verses:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,

to comfort all who mourn’ (Isaiah 61:1-2)

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I suppose we’ve all had the experience of hunkering down during a storm. The last hurricane was Irma in 2017, about 4½ years ago. The storm came in strong during the day on September 10th, 2017 and blew hard most of the night. We had our 3 younger children plus 2 of our daughters-in-law with us that night, all huddled together in our family room, watching the news, watching movies, playing games and hoping for a lot of things.

We hoped that we wouldn’t lose power. That none of the oak trees around our home would fall on it. That our new roof would withstand the winds. We prayed that people across the state would be safe and that help would come quickly to those who needed it.

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