All of “this,” all of these days feel like a steep learning curve. This online churching that we are doing continues to amaze and comfort me. Yesterday was another time of deep gratitude for this opportunity for connection. It felt like an oasis in the desert. It’s one more remarkable change happening in these holding on and letting go (6 feet away, of course) days. I am grateful for this gift that keeps on giving. North Decatur Presbyterian Church is a justice-seeking, gracious and loving community. There I’ve found generous and kind souls gifting hospitality, strong traditions, great preaching, and a loving pastoral staff. Pastor David Lewicki preached about the humanness, frailty, suffering of our lives. And because he is such a good preacher, it wasn’t awful to hear. Yesterday he talked about our human experience and our capacity to hope and love. Even in these days. Especially in these days. Centuries ago a sunrise followed the singing of the procession’s Hosannas. Centuries ago people got up with the sun and began their day. Centuries ago they had no concept of what would unfold in what would much later be called Holy Week. And now we, too find ourselves on this Monday, in many ways beginning this new week, this Holy Week. In more ways than our hearts and minds can comprehend, we too find ourselves not knowing what will be unfolding for us in these coming days. What I do know and what I am holding on to is what David spoke of yesterday – there is in us a remarkable capacity to love and to hope. We’ve seen this living around us in these past weeks. We’ve seen it in small and great acts of kindnesses. We’ve seen it in small and great sacrifices. We’ve heard it in small and great prayers spoken as we’ve somehow navigated our way through these days. Wednesday at the end of the day last week, our Child Life Specialist team at the hospital showed their great capacity for loving and hoping. They grabbed a bucket of chalk and started writing and coloring and loving and hoping us into YES. Some of their artwork is in the slideshow below. Maybe it is all the happy drawings or the colors they chose, or maybe it’s that they saw bigger than what was immediately around them and allowed themselves to be led by their life-giving spirits. However their gift came to be, these chalk work inspirations have gifted all of us - parents, kids, staff alike. David preached us into being mindful of our capacity to love and to hope. He preached us into being grateful for that capacity. And he gifted us into being intentional about that capacity. There is in us, you and me a deep well of living water. We have it always with us, and maybe this day is the perfect day to be reminded of it. We can always draw from it, this living water. It is for us and for all around us to drink. On this Monday of Holy Week, we are invited to drink deeply from it, and just as importantly to share it with others. As we are living in these pandemic days, as we are living in this Holy Week, who knows what this week will bring? Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLesley is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Her passions are listening to her sons, John Brogan and Sam sing; great conversations, long walks and baseball. Archives
April 2020
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