“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?...
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Matthew 6:25-26, 34
So many families are making really tough decisions about Christmas gathering this year. This was going to be one of the busiest family times for us in memory, with several gathering planned. This has all changed as the evil elf Omicron has come to town.
After a lot of soul-searching we mutually decided with our two daughters, Jocelyn and Emily, that we would not be physically together for a Christmas Day meal, even though this is what we yearn for. While we've got our booster jabs, others haven't yet. We are blessed that both of them, with their respective family and partner, live within a couple of hours of us so we have already experienced outdoor visits with exchanges of gifts and goodies.
Yesterday we drove to Second Marsh, a beautiful wildlife area in Oshawa, to spend a couple of hours with our younger daughter, Emily, and her partner. The marsh is between the busiest highway in Canada, the 401, and Lake Ontario yet there is a sense of being apart from the city. We were virtually alone as we walked to the beach where I pulled a Christmas Eve service from my pocket.
Over many years, from the time she was learning to read, Emily read the first portion of the Christmas story from Luke's gospel, and she did so next to the water.
Then I was on for a reading called Touch Hands which was used by my minister father, then all during my ministry, and now with son, Isaac. For a second year we won't gather for a Christmas Eve service either, a huge disappoint for many clergypersons and congregation members.
Fittingly we finished up with the carol Silent Night which we sang outside at the conclusion of Christmas Eve services in four of the congregations I served. This impromptu worship and oasis of nostalgia was consoling for all of us.
We continued our walk and fed the chickadees and nuthatches at several spots along the way. The verses from the Sermon on the Mount are not a Christmas passage, but they do remind us that in the midst of our woes and worries God is with us in Jesus, the Christ. Do we yearn for this to end? Of course, but we are not overwhelmed.
Christ be with you on the morrow, and stay safe. Here is Touch Hands, even if you can't touch hands!
TOUCH
HANDS –John Norton’s Vagabond – W.H.H. Murray (short story)
Ah
friends,...dear friends...
...as
years grow on...
...and
heads get grey...
...how
fast the guests do go
Touch hands.
Touch
hands with those that stay.
Strong
hands to weak...
...old
hands to young...
...around
the Christmas board.
Touch hands.
The
false forget......the foe forgive.
For
every guest will go...
...and
every fire burn low...
....and
empty cabin stand.
Forget! Forgive.
For
who may say...that Christmas Day...
...may
never come...
...to
host...
...or
guest...
...again.
Touch hands.
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