Maple buds and brimming cups
By the Rev. Ken Rummer via Presbyterians Today
Look for signs of hope. The teachers of resilience offer this wisdom to the storm-tossed, the overwhelmed, the anxious. You may be way ahead of me here, but it’s advice I’m trying to take.
A couple of weeks ago — it was on a Monday — I was staring out the window during computer church at home. Has anyone else discovered that with online, prerecorded services, Sunday is no longer a use-it-or-lose-it worship opportunity?
Through the glass I saw the upper branches of our young maple tree, showing dark against a winter-gray sky. The signature red leaves had fallen, leaving the branches bare, except for a couple of curled and crusty hangers-on.
Then I noticed buds on every branch.
In those buds, the makings of next year’s leaves and tree flowers, tightly packed in tough casings, were hibernating before my eyes like bears in caves, unfazed by freezing temps and the forecast arrival of the third measurable snow of the season.
Unfazed is not the word I’d choose for myself these days.
I’m worried about the trajectory of the virus. Physical separation weighs on my heart. And every odd cough makes me wonder.
‘Tiny vaults’ are crammed with good things to come
I hear the daily count of ICU beds in use. Church bells toll the COVID dead. And, though a vaccine is in view, pandemic end is not yet in sight.
I am definitely fazed.
But buds on bare branches — tiny vaults, crammed with good things to come, waiting for the spring day set on their time locks to arrive — those buds are a sign of hope for me.
Read more at presbyterianmission.org
By Gerry Klauber, Elder