Today’s author is Prince of Peace’s Intentional Interim, Pastor Steve Sylvester.
The hydrangea tree (bush? I don’t know, actually. My wife could tell you.) outside our kitchen window is in full flower. It’s a beautiful plant, with its white going to pink petals, baby’s breath like areas of fresh growth and bright green leaves. And the activity on and around it is astonishing. I never tire of watching the swarms of pollinators that make it look like a thing in motion.
As I sit at our kitchen table writing this devotional and looking out at that marvelous tree/bush, I am thinking about my good friend Brian, having just read a Facebook post from the final day of his trip to Nicaragua, a place where he has been many times to visit people he has grown to love deeply. This will likely be his final trip there, as a few months ago he was diagnosed with ALS. I am thinking of my friend Bill, my biking and camping partner and friend since 1992. We are cancelling August’s annual bike tour on the gravel roads on the southern edge of the BWCA, and perhaps all future tours, because of his third Afib episode.
As I think of my friends Brian and Bill, my mind goes to Matthew 6, in which Jesus talks about the nonchalant beauty of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Neither the birds nor the lilies worry about tomorrow. They simply fly about and open to the sun. And God loves them, feeds them, watches over them. I like that. I like being reminded that Brian is in God’s care, and Bill the same. I am thankful for the beauty of the hydrangea and the busyness around it as I ponder the comforting truth that all is in God’s hands.