We just celebrated the first Sunday of Advent. Christmas is less than a month away! The long established magic of the season is trying to gain traction, but Covid is pushing back. The online shopping, house decorating (apparently there’s a huge run on Christmas trees),and Zoom connections are all in gear, but the elephant in the room is “Code Red” restrictions on gatherings. In our area we’re told to stay home without outside guests on Christmas Day. What?!

For sure this will be a December 25th like never before. Are we ready for it? Will it be a downer or will we dig deep and find some joy?

Joy, in the final analysis, is something we choose as much as feel. It’s roots are in gratitude. We used to sing a song in church,“Count your blessings…”. There’s wisdom in that lyric. We have much to be grateful for. Our entitlements may be losing their grip but that’s a good thing. Reevaluation, reinvention, and renewal go well with “Peace on earth good will to men”.

Looking out the window from my desk I’m watching a squirrel preparing her nest for the winter. For her the rhythm of life continues as usual. For us, however, the rhythm is irregular and scary. As I write, the Internet news is all about the second wave of Covid and the distressing awareness that Christmas will be unlike any others in history. We’re being advised to stay at home and celebrate via Zoom and FaceTime.
The popular song ,”It’s the most wonderful time of the year” rings hollow.
So it’ll be a truncated Christmas day socially, but it needn’t be spiritually. This will be a time to revisit the meaning and the beauty of “God became flesh and dwelt among us…”. Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, in a stable no less(!), an angelic chorus singing his birth to humble shepherds, a visit from oriental wisemen…a profound message of “peace on earth”. What a powerful word to our disease and war stricken world.

This “second wave” of Covid is no surprise but it is troubling. It’s a bit much to hear we may be under protocols for another year, barring a vaccine breakthrough. Even those whose tendencies to depression have been minimal are sounding a touch gloomy. Little wonder. We’re made for fellowship.

It’s a big world out there. The mind is boggled by reports of natural disasters ( eg. wild fires on the west coast of America), wars ( latest being Armenia vs Azerbaijan), widespread corruption (read: government leaders everywhere), and relentless surges of Covid. Could bring on a surge of depression!

Nevertheless the critical mass of human energy, history, and resilience continues to prevail. What’s more, for those who have faith in a sovereign and loving Creator, there is much more hope than despair.

I read an interesting article recently about the decline of Saudi Arabia and the rise of Israel as a geopolitical partner of the UAE and Bahrain. This is no surprise to me as someone who lived in Jerusalem for seven years.

The plight of the Palestinians, although the “poster boy” of the Arab nations, will inevitably be eclipsed by the fear those nations have of Iran, an emerging nuclear nation. As is the case in human personal relations so too nations place priority on “what’s in it for me”. Geopolitical and economic power get first place.

Self interest can both distort and blunt righteous behaviour. We need continually to be taking stock of our motivations.

History has shown us that short term crises eventually run up against long term habits and values. A case in point is the increasingly cavalier approach on the part of many to the ever surging Covid 19 pandemic. Social needs are trumping social distancing. People need each other.

Just a day or so ago my wife and I passed a huge lineup of a certain make of sports cars parked on the side of a secondary road. Their owners were gathered at a roadside house for a car rally. No masks, no “distancing”, just a lot of happy drivers comparing notes with hamburgers and hotdogs in hand. This was one of a myriad of parties being held over Labour Day throughout North America.

You can call it “laissez faire” or fatalism, but the fact is that pandemic fatigue is producing carelessness.

We need not become “Henny Penny”( “the sky is falling!”) but we do need to remind ourselves that we have a responsibility to love our neighbours by protecting them with our masks and distance. The pandemic will one day be behind us. Until then we must retain our social discipline.

Our government this week warned we may be living with physical distancing and face masks for another two years. The recent surge of Covid infections in countries who thought they had “flattened the curve” has precipitated a major rethink. We are on a precipice.

Recently my wife and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We’re a bit in shock. How does this happen? We feel like it’s been around 20 years. 50 means we’re really old no?

But the clock won’t be stopped. The only comfort is that we’re all aging, and at the same rate!

At a milestone we tend to take stock of our lives. Have we grown? Have we loved? Have we made a difference in the world? Or have we, as author C.S. Lewis put it, “merely continued”?

The encouraging thing is that even if we feel we’ve not lived significantly it’s not too late to change. A great place to start is to volunteer in a worthy program like food banks, senior care, prison work, or church outreach. Covid-19 is a mitigating factor, no doubt, but there is still a world of opportunity to “love your neighbour as you love yourself”.

I’ve been cohosting an Internet prayer meeting over the past few months (biblediscoverytv.com) and have been pleased at the altruistic tone of  the prayer requests. Yes there have been personal needs presented but many have asked prayer for others. There was/is an old prayer song sung in church when I was a kid-“Others, Lord, yes others. Let this my motto be. Help me to live for others that I might live for thee”. This simple lyric captures a basic biblical truth: we’re to love God, others, and self if we are both righteous and just. Faith is not about navel gazing. Rather it has a worldview that sees far beyond self. When we look up we also look out. We’re pilgrims together. And the Lord makes our paths straight.

Hey friends! Instead of my comments re: Covid-19 and the rigours of the pandemic, how about a powerful video of praise to the Lord from some of our youth volunteers in Africa?  Check us out at www.wowmission.com

No doubt our world is under adversity on an unprecedented scale. We’re all feeling it. Covid-19 has created stresses we never thought possible, not only in terms of threats to health, but also in terms of fragmenting, if not fracturing, our entitlements. Our freedom to move and interact is fraught with risk. We’re under siege.

In the meantime we hold on, and many of us pray. As we do so our core values are being examined and refined. Our spirits are being revisited and refreshed. Our secular materialism is giving way to “seeking first the kingdom of heaven”.

We will come through this. Chastened, refined, and renewed.