‘By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.’ -Hebrews 11:8
Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, says this, too, will pass.
Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Official of Health for Toronto, says this, too, will pass.
Justin Trudeau , Prime Minister of Canada, says this, too, will pass.
But will it really???
Some days this feels like an unending struggle with just one tiny step forward and not just two, but more like a dozen steps back. Of course I’m talking about COVID-19 with all its associated variants. We might even be forgiven for rewriting that well known quote from Ecclesiastes to read….
For everything there is a season,…but just not for this!
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French priest, might well have been talking about COVID when he penned the lines below:
We should like to skip
The intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on
The way to something unknown,
Something new,
And yet it is the law of all progress
That it is made by passing through
Some stages of instability —
And that it may take a very long time.
-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.
We know in our heart of hearts that things will never be the same again. Lessons have been
learned and new ways of doing things explored. Change is never easy but we have been forced to change over these past two years, maybe for the better, maybe not. The one thing that is certain is that things will be different as we go forward. We are like Abraham setting out for a place but knowing not where we are going or what is waiting for us there. The only difference is that in the story of Abraham he had a choice whether he wanted to embark on his journey or not. Our choice, if we even in fact had one, wasn’t nearly so cut and dried. I’m the meantime, we, like Abraham, are on a journey and know not where we will end up.
In closing, just this week, CBC Marketplace reported that when talking about the temporary food shortages that we are seeing right now, the message from both of the experts in the field is the same, that this, too, shall pass.
So it behooves us to be patient, we have it on good authority that this, too, will pass!
I think a lot of us are yo-yoing back and forth between hope and trepidation, Lynn! I hold on to my anchor....God's Word....even on the days when I am tempted to start kicking and screaming at the frustrations...(I think I may be allergic to my masks...O Joy O Bliss... but grateful for them anyway as at least partial protection). I think some of the frustration many feel is that we can't prove what hasn't happened if vaccines hadn't been developed or through lockdowns which I do feel have been valuable health wise but crippling in others. There goes the Yoyo Effect again!
ReplyDeleteI have held onto this guidance in many storms..."suffering (which nobody understands or enjoys, can actually work in the long run to strength, stablish and settle us." 1 Peter 5:10 .This is NOT to make light of or simplify the deep suffering experienced by many but it is my prayer for all of us. Sometimes we all need help "pulling up our socks' as the old adage states.
Judy Imrie