Pastor’s Corner: The Beauty Remains

January 22, 2020

I didn’t expect to see much during morning walks by the Bay last week. Low clouds seemed like a permanent companion for us here in Hilo, matched by extraordinarily high tides and repeated downpours. Most days, my experience matched my expectations.

One morning, however, I glanced up to see the snowpack on the summit of Mauna Kea glowing a faint blue-white, seemingly floating in mid-ear. My eyes swiftly discerned the familiar lines of the mountain’s slopes, deeper blue set against the gray-blue of the clouds. Blue was the color theme of that morning, not the dazzling sky blue of a cloudless sky, but the deep and subtle blues of the hour before the dawn.

I took a picture, of course.

People still debate the future of that summit. Neighbors and family members argue, sometimes fiercely, about what they believe should happen. The conflict remains.

The beauty of the mauna also remains.

It reminds me of Earthrise, the 1968 photo taken by Apollo 8 crewman Bill Anders showing the Earth rising above the surface of the moon. Its serenity has awed the world.

Yet the world in 1968 was also torn with conflict. The Vietnam War raged. Soviet tanks crushed the Prague Spring. Civil wars ravaged the populations of Angola, Eritrea, Guatemala, Mozambique, North Yemen, and Rhodesia. Assassins in the United States slew the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy.

And the beauty of the planet remained. Indeed, it remains.

We cannot and must not ignore the suffering, conflict, and desperate prayers of the world. Let also never forget its wonder and its beauty as we do so.

The beauty of the mauna – the beauty of the planet – the beauty of humanity – remains.

With aloha,

Pastor Eric