This time of year I’m reminded of the four stages of Santa Claus:
1) You believe in Santa Claus,
2) You don’t believe in Santa Claus,
3) You are Santa Claus, and
4) You look like Santa Claus...
Caught somewhere between stages 3 and 4, I can’t help but apply this to our present reality and the Four Stages of our Pandemic (for those of us who have not been victims of Covid-19):
1) Yay! Snow Day
2) Yikes! Groundhog’s Day
3) Lord help us through this Endless Day
4) Maybe, just maybe... Christmas Eve Day?
The theme of the upcoming Third Sunday of Advent is ‘Rejoice’ - as in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always.” In order to do this you and I are invited not to change our reality, but to pay more attention to other parts of it. In other words, Stage 4 above could have read: Doomsday. But when we put on some other lenses we can rejoice in:
1) The prospect of an effective vaccine
2) Another safe holiday spent with those closest to us
3) A new year with a new national strategy to combat the virus
4) The mystical ways the Divine is teaching and leading through all of this
What else might go on your list?
You may find, like me, that the exercise of this word ‘rejoice’ brings not only relief, but hope. For we know that things will work out not because we’re in charge, but because we’re actively remembering who is.
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