Has anything changed in your life these past twelve months? I know – really dumb question. More to the point, what still exists of your pre-COVID lifestyle? What habits have been interrupted? What joys have been dimmed? What people and celebrations have been missed? What travel has been annihilated? What plans have had to be postponed? How tired are you of the phrase ‘new normal’? How difficult is daily reading global statistics of infections and deaths? What has me thinking along these lines is my tendency to take for granted life’s events and progression. So much so that when the lights went out last year at about this time, I kept moving through, moving forward, making plans, ignoring the groundswell of noise and ugly rumors, until reality broke through with stunning clarity (well, maybe not stunning, because I was still naively thinking there’d be a couple weeks of this nuisance before we got back to business as usual!)
The other part of COVID is that it is causing me focus on another aspect of my life where I’m wont to blissfully carry on carrying on – this boundaryless, bottomless ocean of God’s provision I’m swimming in. I could list dozens of superlatives in an effort to more accurately define it, all of them gleefully extracted from my word-nerd bank, but still be found wanting. It’s almost too terrible a thing to imagine that we would one day live having had this most precious and vital resource taken from us (it won’t be!). However, it is of benefit to briefly consider such a scenario. What, of all that is daily bread to us, would suddenly vanish? Who would no longer be present? How would we even survive? OK. That‘s far enough. That miniscule exercise is sufficient to move me to worship the Ever-Faithful, Eternal Father in whom is not even a shadow of turning, whose mercies and compassions are new every morning – every morning! And I’m filled again with immense gratitude for each of you who continually show me Jesus. Thank you, much-loved Church, my fellow travelers! PD
