I’m a big fan of cold weather. I love winter. I think it is because I was raised in Colorado and New York up until the second grade when we moved to Texas. I had lots of white Christmases. One year, I remember climbing up a snow drift and jumping off into a snow bank. I’m sure it was hard for the dads who were shoveling the snow out of the driveways, but it was a winter wonderland to me.
The last few weeks have been exceptionally warm and mild. I saw this tulip tree in full bloom. It seems to think that spring has sprung, but I fear there might be some cold weather around the corner. We have one in our yard and it always seems to over estimate the signs that winter is over. It has gotten walluped more than once by a freeze and the blossoms look so terrible - brown and bruised and limp.
It feels like COVID. We keep hoping that it is over. We kept acting like it is over. The number of people I know who are sick with it continues to climb. I still hear about people I know who are dying. We are all so exhausted and fatigued from it all.
We are not good at long-suffering. We want all the trouble to get over with quick, but this new reality of waves of illness and death looks like it will be our new future. I’m wondering how we will look back on this in ten years. When we have some distance and perspective will we be thankful for our response or regretful? Will we wish we had been more careful or less careful? Will we think differently about our individual freedoms and our community responsibility?
I took a COVID test on Friday morning. It came back negative, which I suppose is a positive. I had a running nose, a cough and a bad night of sleep. I was worried about Sunday and preaching and thinking that I needed tor record my sermon if I could not preach it live. I was worried because we had been to New Orleans and the Sugar Bowl. I wore my N95 mask to the game and most of the time we were in public, but not the whole time.
I wish I had insight, mostly, I just feel like we are slogging through this terrible time, but because of the polarization in our world, it feels like we are walking alone. The Bible encourages us to bear on another’s burdens. I pray we can get back to that.