I praise You, O God, for this gorgeous summer day!  Feeling God's presence is very easy for me in the heat of July.  Whether it is the sun's radiance, the splendor of color in the flowers and foliage, or the blessedness of the persistent humidity and the occasional soaking rainfall, I feel very close to our "Master Gardener" with all this wetness and beauty surrounding me.  I thrill at the sacred dance of sun and water, producing abundant life from the earth.  Look around and delight in it!  The death knell of winter is far behind us; resurrection time is here!  New life is outside, and within.

With all this new life, July feels like a perpetual Sunday to me, a time to kick back and read a great book, breathe deeply in the shadows of the trees, or simply bask in God's glorious creation.  The pungent humidity on these summer days makes me feel invigorated and fully alive, like a clay model coming to life, melted and remolded a hundred times in the skillful, loving hands of the sculptor.  I feel both exhausted and overwhelmed, and mostly grateful that the Lord is so near.

What a tremendous comfort to hear from Hosea the promise that the Lord will be "like dew" for Israel.  I love all the garden imagery today:  "like the Lebanon cedar" "put forth shoots," "splendor like the olive tree," "fragrance like the Lebanon cedar," "dwell in his shade," "raise grain," "blossom like the vine," "like a verdant cypress tree," "because of me, you bear fruit!"  Anyone who tends a garden, or takes solace among the trees, or breathes in the intoxicating perfumes of the summer knows what this promise is from the Lord.  It is the promise of wetness, of warmth, of fragrance, of fruitfulness.  It is the promise of the lover embracing the beloved, the promise of a love that transcends them and becomes new life, a new creation.

This is the promise that God gives us, and we should give it to each other:  a love that creates anew, that becomes new life.  "I will love them freely!" we are told in today's first reading.  The gift of love and creation is good because it is from God, our Creator.  Sadly, our world does not always celebrate, revere, and cultivate new life.  Instead, we creatures find many ways to pollute, corrupt, and destroy God's creation.  It seems like violence and destruction permeate our world, which is quickly becoming a global cemetery instead of a garden of new life, as God intended.

No wonder Jesus warned the disciples to beware of those whose lust for vengeance and violence gave way to hatred.  Jesus knew that brothers would turn against brothers, fathers against children, and children against their parents.  The archetypal paradigm of loving family that God designed can only be undermined in a world of violence and warfare.  No wonder we hear this sagacious admonition:  "Be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves!"  We must beware of those who persecute their neighbors, place them in prisons unjustly, and perpetrate violence on them.  These innocents are like "sheep among wolves."  Their enemies will no doubt disdain followers of Jesus, whose legacy is forgiveness, self-giving love, and new life.

The Good News today is that God's Spirit is alive in our hearts, alive in our world!  Whenever forgiveness triumphs over vengeance, whenever generosity triumphs over selfishness, and whenever love triumphs over hate, God's life is among us, thriving, surging forth from the tomb, conquering death and creating new life.  It reminds me of the doxology from "Morning Has Broken":  "Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden, sprung in completeness, where His feet pass!" 

Today I praise God for new life in abundance, for creating us and our world anew!