Daffodils

It’s a “growing edge,” that place where something new emerges from an uncertain, frightening time. I see it all around me……..

• • strangers smile or nod, walking on the opposite side of the street
  • the kind car mechanic understands social distancing and offers to come by and pick up my car so he can check a funny noise ….. “to make sure it’s safe,” he says
  • sparkling lime-colored grass appears in little tufts along the sidewalk
  • friendly volunteers at the hospital donation center cheerfully fetch bags of homemade face masks from popped trunks and offer another kit ….. like efficient masked worker bees directing cars, checking off items, in essence operating a grass roots supply chain for the needed PPE’s
  • a long-distant friend sends a beautiful e-card
  • teachers spend hours adapting curriculum to online education and jump into a new kind of teaching with enthusiasm and energy
  • brave folks keep us supplied at grocery stores and pharmacies
  • friends text to ask how things are going and send links to online libraries, Mah Jongg sites, and Zoom book groups
  • parents meet the challenges of quarantine by nurturing a sense of family unity, while growing new capacity for problem-solving and patience
  • creative church leaders share daily devotions, online prayer services, and even Holy Communion
  • musicians post vocal and instrumental renditions that touch our hearts, making us laugh, smile, or cry
  • FB friends amuse and arouse us, offering welcome company in this time of isolation
  • daily reports remind us: this is a time for deeper faith, and somehow we know that God will not abandon us and some day we will look back and say with conviction that “God was with us”

A growing edge indeed!

The sweet daffodils that grace my sunny garden patch were beaten down recently by heavy rain and hail, their delicate blossoms seemingly smashed into the mulch. They raised themselves upright the next day and are bobbing again happily in the sunshine, just as pretty as ever! Now that’s a lesson for us!

Be safe and well!

                                        “If God is for us, who can be against us?”   ~  Romans 8: 31