It was the week of Easter, this year. My wife expressed to me that she would like for us to go to an Easter “sunrise service” to be held at the bay, at a time scheduled for a half hour before dawn. I said, “okay, sure!” not really believing that she would follow through with it. Much to my surprise, she woke me up at five o’clock, having made coffee and reminding me that we needed to get ready so we could be there early. About an hour later we arrived with our lawn chairs, joining about two hundred other sleepy-eyed people as we sat beside the bay in the cold and the dark.
There were prayers in the dark, songs in the dark, and very beautiful music by a small choir. Some people were dressed in nice dresses or suits, and some of us were much more casual. As the people gathered, I sat in my lawn chair and wondered what would possess so many of us to gather here at six a.m., and what did we expect to see?
The service was very traditional, and it didn’t take long before I realized that I would probably not hear or see anything that I had not seen hundreds of times before. Then ( please pardon this terrible pun! ) it dawned on me! Really, just at the first glimpse of dawn, I began to understand that it doesn’t always have to be new, it doesn’t always have to be entertaining, it doesn’t have to be the latest modern idea that’s going around. In fact, there is something really special about the stability and the routine of the good news of the “old- old story.” The fact was that we had gathered together in the cold of the early morning simply to honor our firmly held belief in resurrection, in life beyond the grave, our belief that there was a man who was more than just a man, who really died and was really buried and who really got up and walked again!
As the light began to spread over the dark bay, the words of the minister seemed to take on a vitality and an importance that elicited a quiet but deep joyfulness from within me. The message was beautiful to me, because it had now fallen upon a receptive soul who rejoiced in its simple but powerful truth.
A wonderful thing happened then, just as the glow from the sun was beginning to change the appearance of all of our surroundings. As if beckoned by a divine presence, a mixture of birds- of gulls and sandpipers and geese and ducks and pelicans- all began to fly toward the sunlight, singing and honking and quacking and chirping and calling with whatever sounds they were created to make! The minister continued his sermon, but it seemed that all nature had joined in to share in the presentation of a message of hope restored - that not only Easter, but every sunrise shouts to us that morning has come , that darkness has vanished and the light is now here, that the mistakes and hurts of yesterday are behind us, that the opportunity to live a new day has been given to us all! The sea birds, as well as the sparrows and robins and cardinals and finches, all sing the song of a fresh beginning, of a renewed hope, of a bright future. This universal message is echoed throughout nature at sunrise every day! And those of us who took the time to be there were privileged to join in the celebration.
Soon the service was over, and I carried our lawn chairs back to the car. People loaded up and left. We went back to our busy lives, to face the pressures and labors of what sometimes has been called a “rat race.” But the birds stayed behind, singing and honking, quacking and chirping , long after we all had driven away.
I don’t think we give enough credit to the birds. Maybe being “bird-brained” is not as dumb as we once thought. They seemed to greet the new day with exhuberant joyfulness, and they will do it again tomorrow morning, and every morning to come until their feathered wings can no longer fly, and their tiny throats can no longer emit a sound.
Once He said, “behold the fowls of the air.” Early last Easter morning I think I saw a little more of what He was talking about.
I don’t plan to set my alarm for five o’clock every morning to watch the sunrise at the bay. But I will not wait until next Easter before I go again.
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