FROSTY FRIDAY

Lockdown. It has been ten months with the disease swirling around us and we have felt fairly safe. It started just as the pretty new buds appeared on the trees and soon enough summer would bring brilliant green grasses to walk through with a friend at arm’s length.

Most of us wore masks to protect others and we thought we were careful enough. We did see teenagers playing basketball together and heard about bars and casinos packed with people . At their own peril we thought.

Autumn was long and beautiful for us here in the north and we tried eating at outdoor patios once in awhile . We felt fairly safe.

But the disease took hold and grew. Now I know people who have died from Covid and currently am aware of 3 families who suffer from it at this moment. It’s real. It’s here. It’s near. Masks are mandatory now.

So we will continue on this Advent, in these darkened days from setting our clocks back and feeling like all is backward. And dark…eating dinner in the dark, waking in the dark.

It can feel like we are unseen when we are so alone. But God knows when even one sparrow falls.(Matthew 10:29) Call on Him for comfort. Grab a quilt, sit in the light of your lamp, and read about the babe who was born to show us how to live. Be still . Listen.

Yesterday, I woke up to a wonderland of frosty elegance. Every single branch wore a glittering garment. The frost had locked each tree in its frozen grip. Locked down. But there was a kind of grace in each lacy stem.

So I look for grace in this lockdown. Winter,darkness, and disease have us in their grip at the moment. So instead of being upset at the thought of Christmas without my family around my table I will look for the unique gift in it all. We are trying to stay safe. We live in a time that allows us to see each other through technology . We don’t even have to write a letter (though receiving letters is one of my greatest joys) because we can pick up our phones and be connected instantly. We don’t have restaurants but we don’t have to grow our own food (though growing vegetables and fruit is so fulfilling). We can pick up what we need to cook a good meal from a large choice of nearby stores.

And of course many suffer. Our cities have many lonely, homeless and broken people. There are ways to give though and we must.We must take care of each other.

It is a frosty, lockdown kind of time. But let us look for the beauty and look forward with hope.