Day Eighteen - April 18, 2020
Today I awoke (the first time) at 4:35am to my phone ringing. In my sleepy state, I answered my mom who was asking for help in getting out of bed. I honestly thought I was home in my own bed and thought it was Leah and Kia’s turn … so I told her to call Leah...
And then I slowly woke up only to discover she was right - I was delirious… I was actually lying in the lumpy guest room bedroom! Just another sign I’m not cut out for night shift! Oy vey!
I know Nellie somehow got her walk because when I finally got back home this morning - she crawled into bed on top of me and her little ears were freezing!
The sun rose - sometime between 4:35 and 7:45 this morning...
*****
We tried something new today. For the first time during this quarantine, we ordered prepared food and did not cook lunch. We drove to pick up the pizza and sandwiches curb-side. Anything to keep myself awake and moving all day…!
This afternoon, I watched a beautiful couple’s wedding via zoom with a fan club chiming in via chat. I caught a video clip of an extended family celebrating a new baby’s arrival - cheering from a hospital parking lot while mommy and baby brushed tears away and waved furiously through the window. And in real life, I saw many people going in and out of the food store wearing all sorts of masks - making it look almost normal and effortless.
We’re changing. Adapting in many ways… becoming resilient in ways we never thought possible...
And in other ways, we’re becoming believers… slowly sifting through the rules and regulations, mandates and dictates, suggestions and orders. We’re gradually taking on a belief system stemming from a vast variety of sources. Who can really say what is right? Who is right? Am I right? Is THIS right?
Will we begin to accept virtual weddings as the new norm? What part of this current temporary will become the new permanent? It seems a slow divide is beginning to rise from the depths of humanity. Lines are being drawn… Some choose left - others, right…
How do we know Truth? How do we sift through the muck and mire and arrive at gold. Gold - the element that is purified and tested through fire. What is Truth?
Nearly two thousand years ago, there was also a great divide rising among the people. Some followed one leader - others followed someone completely different. The greatest climax of all time came when it appears that truth (Himself) was on trial. Pilate asked, “You are a king, then? And Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world - TO TESTIFY TO THE TRUTH. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
I have recently been introduced to a little known, yet accomplished artist and writer of the early 20th Century, Lilias Trotter. There was a recent movie released about her life entitled, “Many Beautiful Things: The Life and Vision of Lilias Trotter.” I have been studying through a devotional that is inspired by her diaries, journals and published works, both written and painted, over the forty years she spent serving in Algeria and is entitled, “Images of Faith” by Miriam Rockness.
I was deeply moved today when I read a short excerpt from her diary
“How does a branch that is not [yet] a branch become one? By grafting. It must be severed from the plant on which it grew. The severed surface is then brought to a wounded place in the vine's stem and bound there - heart to heart.
And from the wounded place in the stem - the sap flows out and seals the branch into union.
And then it finds its way into the channels of the graft and soon it needs no outward bonds to bind it there.
It has become one with the vine …”
We find our way… our beliefs, our friends, our normalcy, our faith in these times. When all the old is stripped away, we draw near to the heart of God… binding ourselves to Him. He gently whispers life and truth over and over as we remain in Him. Slowly we become new. He is the vine; we are the branches. And if we remain in Him - we will bear fruit! (John 15:5)
This process of discovering what is altogether true will continue throughout our entire lives. This funny season we live in now only magnifies our need to know. We take courage knowing that this is the reason He was born and came into the world! To testify to the truth!
Getting curb-side pickup was the highlight of our day… oh, except for snapping photos of tall spires rising high into the deep blue skies, marred only by the telephone wires blocking our view!