Friday, December 2, 2016

Friday, December 2, 2016
1 Peter 1: 1 - 3

Winter has always been the quiet season of the year for me.  I compare it to a caterpillar wrapped in

its cocoon waiting for spring.  I love the snow falling outside putting a white blanket on the pine trees or sitting by the fireplace watching the flames dance and doing whatever the quiet project happens to be at that particular time. Sometimes this project has been studying or reading.  Maybe it has taken on the form of quilting, painting or writing.

When I was a little girl, I would sit on our couch in Pennsylvania looking at the Sears Christmas Wish Book which was delivered to our home around November 24th.  I hoped that Santa Claus would hear my wish and put the doll I loved under our Christmas tree. As I got older, I would sit bent over my desk hoping that I would pass my Algebra or Chemistry exams.  A little older yet, I hoped that my grades would be good enough to get me into the university that I wanted to attend.  Later, with all these wishes behind me, I hoped that God would give me the strength, knowledge and courage to raise our children to be caring, compassionate and strong willed adults.  And then came being a priest’s wife in Canada.  This was probably the most difficult part of my life’s journey thus far (not the Canada part, but the priest’s wife part).  I hoped I would do my part of the ministry right, whatever right might be.  Now that this part of my journey is coming to an end, I realize that there is no right way, just God’s way, which is to love one another.

When I think of all the periods of hopefulness in my life, I realize that each hopeful passage was God’s way of making me a better person.  I hope that finally now I am moving toward the Light; that that cozy cocoon of long ago will open, and as the poet Rumi said, “I will soar with angels” knowing that God has given me hope through the birth of his son, Jesus Christ.

– Lynne van der Hiel