C-19 Reflection #2: Working With What We’ve Got pt.2
C19 Reflections: Working With What We’ve Got(#2)
Psalm 103 (*Take some time to read Psalm 103 – so much there!)
8
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15
The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
Reflection:
What we are into just now, especially with all the questions, conversations and speculations about how long this is going to last, reminded me that I lived in housebound isolation once before.
Diagnosed at 10 years old with Scarlet fever, still a quarantine necessary disease in Ontario back then, my strict isolation from everything I loved lasted for several weeks.No interaction with my friends, schoolwork delivered daily and completed on my own, no schoolyard games or sports, no leaving the property even for a quick bike ride or hike in the woods to the Salamander Pond, no special celebrations or larger family events, no church. Nothing but being in the house a lot with an occasional trip to the backyard to do who knows what on my own for short periods at a time.
My first quarantine felt like it was going to last forever and overall it was one of the worst experiences of my life. Only lots of reading made the time bearable for chunks of the day (TV not so much in our family back then) but it was mostly the winsome presence of my beloved Gramma Hannah that served to make that season memorable and important,especially as my memory invites me to go back there just now.
She came to stay with me because without her I would have been alone; my sister was in high school and my mom was working full time because my dad had recently passed away. Hard times for me and our family all round that year. Lots of complex stuff for a schoolboy. Lots of questions. Lots of tears.
Annie Hannah was a warm, generous, kind, affectionate person who loved to tell stories especially to her grandchildren. Her face shone with what her heart possessed. She laughed openly and often and while she didn’t exactly have an easy life she was a woman of God and a woman of prayer who walked with joy in this world.
As my Scarlet fever housemate she was the best and it didn’t hurt that she had a serving instinct, gifted in preparing the tastiest barley soup and the richest short bread ever. It also helped that she was fond of candies. Whenever I got down and frustrated with everything I was going through during those long lonely sad days, she was always there for me as a sensitive listener and a good friend, strengthening me by her genuine goodness and her hugs. No one else in my life at that time could have met my need in the way she she did.
While Gramma Hannah was a frequent visitor - guest in our home during the early days,our quarantine partnership was so long and worked out so well that several years later when I was heading into the city for university she was happy to have me for a housemate. This arrangement gave me some good opportunities to help her out and to try to pay her back for the kindness she had shown our family for so long. During those three years together, I continued to experience God’s character and love revealed through how she lived her prayerful, practical life and how she loved me just like she did during the fever. The description of God’s kind, knowing compassion expressed so beautifully in Psalm 103 brings her back to me.
Every family in all the generations needs someone who lives and breathes that kind ofmercy and that was Annie Hannah for all my aunts and uncles and cousins. She is a legend of grace for us to this day.
On the wall of her home by the front door was a plaque that read:
“ Though some should sneer and some should blame,
I’ll go with all my guilt and shame,
I’ll go to him because his name,
Above all names is Jesus.”
I loved that plaque because that was her. That’s who defined her and that’s who motivatedher. She lived the Christ life.
As I remember my first time of isolation as I reflect on what we are experiencing just now with all of its relational and psychological challenges, I find myself hoping for one thing above all else for each of you and for all of us together in our community - that when we all come through this we will have received a clearer, deeper, transforming experience thekindness and affection of God through Jesus in the very same way that I received that gift because Annie Hannah came to share life together with me during that lonely time. I hope also in the meantime that we are given angels to help us walk with joy in the world and that we can help others do the same in their time of need.
Amen.
