Streams of Mercy

Yesterday was a special day at Jackson Springs Presbyterian Church. It was “Blanket the World With Love” Sunday, and we had a fellowship meal. It was so good to share to share our favorite dishes with each other, to move from table to table visiting over first the meal and then dessert. It was fun to watch the little ones run and play. It’s been a long time since we felt such joy in being together!

Our session meeting that evening seemed more hopeful than in recent months, more open in sharing, with words of appreciation and encouragement coming forth. We entertained some new thoughts and enjoyed remembering some activities we’d enjoyed in the past. While we still met in the Fellowship Hall, and sat only three to a table, no one wore a mask, and it was wonderful to see faces again!

A faithful Clerk of Session is a precious gift in the life of a Presbyterian minister, in the best of times and in the worst of times! When our work was done and I was ready to call for the closing prayer and adjourn, that faithful Clerk of Session shared a wonderful gift with us- a poem from the Presbyterian Outlook, by Barbara wood Gray:

Winning at Love

The pandemic gods

thought they had won

by thinking they could say

that touching and hugging were all bad

so they took them all away.

All the ways that we knew how

to love each other through,

and rise above the loneliness

of things we couldn’t do.

Little did those gods know

how true love finds its way

to make a difference in our lives

each and every day.

Exchange a loving look or smile,

look me in the eye.

Spend that extra moment

just passing time on by.

Put a note under the door.

Write someone far away.

The littlest acts of kindness

can take the sad away.

And that’s the biggest gift of all

that the year gave you and me …

that loving acts of kindness

abound for us to see.

So listen up for birdsong

and the love that’s in each other.

The pandemic gods can’t make us blind

to how to be a lover!

I’m so very thankful we’re moving toward a “new normal” and so very grateful for lessons learned along the way – and for those “streams of mercy, never ceasing!”

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (I Corinthians 13:7-8)

Elizabeth