Last night I received a text from a relative in Texas that shared recent health problems and openly expressed disappointment and longing. She and her husband had been planning a Thanksgiving trip to Washington state where her son and his wife live with their young children. There was also a return trip over Christmas with other family members that had been shaping up. But when everyone read yesterday morning's Covid-19 warnings, they all realized that none of this could happen. She was left with her disappointment and an acute feeling of missing everyone in her family. This was followed by a clear recognition of how important family is to her personally, "I am tethered to my family". With this realization, she decided to plan a "Zoom family reunion" project and I am sure is already researching creative activities for their online Christmas. This story is being lived by countless families and friends throughout America this week as we grapple with the new intensity of the Pandemic and the grave threat that it has brought to holiday traditions.
My intent is to encourage you in prayer this week, opening the spiritual possibilities for healing in the different strata of people and roles impacted by the Pandemic. This includes our capacity for compassion and our awareness of shared struggles. Today, I encourage you to pray for those in your circle of family and friends. This is far more than well-wishing, more than sending "positive" thoughts their way. It is a letting go of your struggles to make things better and a "turning over" of each one, to the Wisdom and Intelligence of That which is in them, of That which has always sustained their lives, no matter how we may have fretted or judged events. So we can ask and accept the Highest and Best for them during this Pandemic, from a God of understanding and gentleness, of healing and protection, a God that brings nourishment to the deepest longings and needs within each. We know that they are sustained and guided. We know what is needed materially as well as physically, emotionally and spiritually, flows from the well-spring of life's abundant resources in traditional ways and in ways we could never predict. And like each of us, their lives expand in a new resilience and strength through this wave of Pandemic and its passing. With deep gratitude, it is done. And so it is, Amen. (Susan Nettleton)