Streams of Mercy

In the last weeks of the year I look for special thoughts and writings I want to remember in the new year. This year four things speak to where I am in the moment.

The first is a Christmas card with a beautiful fox (with a green scarf), a lovely deer (with a red scarf) and a pretty cardinal (with a sprig of holly), standing together in a snowy forest with the words “Joy to Your World”- this is the card’s message. I think God wants me to hear those words in just that way, for many times in this year that is passing, foxes, deer and birds have been the main bringers of joy into my solitary world! “Joy to the World,” always, certainly! “Joy to Your World,” however that world may seem at the moment, is a special message for Christmas 2020.

The second is something I read online: “I had thought 2020 was the year I was going to get everything I wanted; instead, it was the year I learned to be truly grateful for everything I had.” I have experienced a deeper gratitude and appreciation for many things I took for granted before mid-March 2020. I will never again take for granted: eating lunch in a restaurant with a friend; going to the grocery store without following signs of direction and spacing; enjoying a movie or a play; walking mask-free down the street and shopping in a favorite store; hugging and shaking hands with my congregation; using our very own Communion Service when we break bread and share the cup, and singing freely songs of the faith; visiting dear friends in continuing care communities; traveling to visit family near and far. Truly, 2020 was the year I learned to be grateful in deeper ways than ever before, for everything I had.

The third is a very special Christmas card. The four corners of the card were marked with hearts, and boys and girls of many races, dressed in a rainbow of colors framed these words:

Help a Stranger

Praise a Child

Light a Candle

Share Your love

Sing for Joy

Lend a hand

Pray for Peace

Understand

These words are so perfect for gifts we can give one another during these uncertain days, and gifts we need to receive ourselves. I’ll soon have this card on in a frame on my office desk.

The fourth is something I copied in my journal in the summer of 1985, in a time of transition in my life. In re-reading old journals, I came across these words:

We need to feel more to understand others.

We need to love more to be loved back.

We need to cry more, to cleanse ourselves.

We need to see more than our own little world.

We need to hear more and listen to the needs of others.

We need to give more and take less.

We need to share more and own less.

We need to look more and realize that we are not so different

from one another.

We need to create a world where all can peacefully

live the life they choose.

These words speak to my heart in this season of life as well, for it, too is a time of transition - into a new season of life we’ll share together. May God bless our journey through this new year and cause us to be a blessing wherever we are.

Elizabeth