It might seem odd that I sit here writing a lament near the beginning of the shiny holiday month where typically we are hosting and baking and shopping and attending concerts or meaningful candlelight services.
Or is it odd?
It is how we feel, most of us. So why would we neglect to share how we really feel? Why fake a good time when it's just an odd time?
For many a truly sad time.
I took the time yesterday to watch a memorial for the many who have died of Covid over the last few months. My hunch is that we will not even know or begin to feel the real effect of the season we’re in until later. Maybe much later.
King David learned how to lament and mourn and now a good portion of our beloved Psalms contain his words - freeing us to give voice to our own. Even in the midst of a holiday season.
So I wrote this lament. I wrote it for me. I wrote it for all of us.
Maybe you have one of your own that would do you good to write. Go ahead.
A Normal January
We came from a normal January,
from dreams and summer vacation plans made early.
From businesses picking up, friends meeting up, and
children putting up with school -
those institutions that mark
our successes, our relationships,
and our futures.
We came from a February wave that lapped up on the shore
and then came in March heavy.
We’ve come from shuttered eateries, businesses locked down,
school busses lined up in parking lots,
dreams put on hold, (some of them died),
vacations stopped.
We’ve come to restaurants with curbside pick-up,
friends, but no meet-ups,
children longing to put up with school.
We’ve come to tables with empty places,
worship from Zoom spaces,
while we see more and more cases
of Covid.
We’ve come to doubts about sustaining,
relationships maintaining,
And our futures that are draining.
We’ve come to lamenting - this 11-month storm.
God, help us to mourn this difficult storm.
We’re tired, so tired of this Groundhog-Day storm.
This 2020 storm.
We came from a normal January...