Easter Seals
Easter morning. Newborn harbor seal pups and their moms at
Hopkins Beach on Monterey Bay.
On this protected beach, off
limits for nearly 100 years (I took this photo through a strong fence,) the
seals know they are safe from human hunters of the past and excited tourists of
today. This is their home year-round,
and their birthing place each April.
They are Easter Seals! For the moms, the dark days of groaning in
travail are over. For the pups this is a
blessed birth-day when all things are made new.
Monterey Bay itself has been
reborn as an Easter empty tomb in recent decades, as vast stretches of beach
and ocean have been set aside as reserves and sanctuaries (a nice holy word)
and a move toward ecosystem management has set an overflowing dinner table for
more and more creatures.
Last year during Holy Week our
Blue Theology Mission Station welcomed 15 youth from two Oregon Disciples of
Christ congregations. They helped
restore new plant life on the Asilomar dunes, cleaned up beaches, saw the
mystery of whale and dolphin and these baby seals. Their Maundy Thursday’s foot washing was the caress
of the sea at a beach worship in the dark.
“St. Francis
invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and
grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness… Francis asked that
part of the friary garden always be left untouched, so that wild flowers and
herbs could grow there, and those who saw them could raise their minds to God,
the Creator of such beauty.
“Rather than a
problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with
gladness and praise.” (Pope Francis,
Laudate Si, 12)
“Consider the
lilies of the field…Yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of
these.” (Matthew 6)
“Set me as a
seal upon your heart,
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
…. Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor can the floods drown it.” (Song of Solomon 8)
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
…. Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor can the floods drown it.” (Song of Solomon 8)
Happy
Eastertide from the Blue Theology Mission Station!
I post these
devotions on ocean spirituality and stewardship every Wednesday here and at www.bluetheologytideings.blogspot.com. Come and sea the resurrection! Info on group visits for youth and
adults: Bluetheology.com
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