And everybody gives a huge sigh. Those of us who have lived through this year don't have to say anything else. Our lives have been shaken, and over and over we have shaken our heads at unfairness, injustice, and insanity!
First, the pandemic—a plague
that stopped normal life in an instant. We quarantined to slow the spread; we
schooled online; we only met with social cohorts. Shops were closed. Even
churches. Everything in our busy lives ground to a halt. Out here in rural Oklahoma,
the word was surreal. Months we
practiced this strange social behavior, knowing there were no cases in the
county. Retirement homes, nursing facilities, and hospitals were locked down.
Nobody could go see grandma and grandpa. We walked. We visited national parks.
We gardened and filled our pantries... all as though in a dream.
The economy crashed. We were kept waiting while congress stalled on aid. Politics held us hostage. Tasks forces sprang up...trying to help but being slandered and rebuffed at every turn. The crisis turned into anger and insurrection. Race riots, incited and abetted by political agenda, brought every day another lunacy. There was no peace on earth. Fanning the flames, the screaming media told us what to think while censoring whatever hope we had.
The virus finally hit us in October...
after schools had re-opened and football and volleyball had tried a
comeback. Waves of illness over the plains; Most was mild, a trifling flu. Some was serious and hospitals filled. There was a vaccine ready... oh wait, it couldn't possibly be
ready... until the election was over, then mysteriously, oh yes it's ready; it's within days of being available.
Then the election... a huge,
cheating, fiasco. Stopping the count for spikes in the mysterious middle of the night. Dark plots. Obvious injustice. Witnesses and witnesses to a great travesty. Yet their voices went unheard, for justice was not only blind, she refused to even weigh the case.
Some of us got sick with the coronavirus.
I worried as several of my friends struggled to breathe and spent time in the
hospital. Some died. Then I noticed a headache, and a fever, and I tested positive. A strange illness. Nobody's
experience was identical. For over two weeks, I battled fever, cough, weird aches and
exceptional fatigue. I took steroids, a couple of z-packs, hydrated, and took my
vitamins and aspirin, not knowing if it would help. It was wearying, but I survived. I still can't taste the Christmas candy...or the ham or those peanut clusters and pecan pies. Sigh.
Thanksgiving—cancelled
Christmas programs—cancelled
No cantata this year.
Everything was scaled down and low key.
A year of introspection. Of stars shining out there in the universe untouched by our sordid situation.
A year of cancelled plans... but
God's great plan has not been cancelled.
A year of quarantine... but God
isn't held back by regulations. His presence enters even the sick room. He sits
with us when nobody else is allowed.
A year of instability, fraud,
violence, disaster... winds assaulting our foundations.
Remember the Rock of Ages.
Christ our King!
It's still Christmas.
