Post Number Twenty Two

Snowbound

This is the year of the great eastern seaboard blizzard.  Baltimore, Maryland has received a record snowfall in two powerful storms that came just a week apart.  Mary and Andrew have been snowbound in Baltimore through it all.  Their church has canceled services for the second Sunday in a row.  They had just finished moving into a house and buying groceries when the first storm hit.  They have been snowbound ever since.  Last night I sent Mary a text message asking, "How are the snow bunnies doing?" She sent me back five text messages of one letter each - "B - O - R - E - D."  Being a novice at the whole text message thing I laughed and marveled at how powerful and clear was her meaning.

We have been feeling snowbound in a different way.  Terry is not yet half way through her chemotherapy.  The burden of worry, and the accompanying physical and emotional difficulties have hit us hard.  On top of that, caring for Terry's aging parents gets ever more difficult.  Every time the phone rings my stomach knots and I expect yet another care assignment - a run to the pharmacy, an unexpected doctor visit.  The mid February weather mirrors my mood - dark, gray and foreboding. We are in the midst of it and the coming of a new spring seems a long way off. 

The words of Psalm 130 come to my mind:  Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.  Lord, hear my voice!  I appreciate the exclamation point.  Put another way, "We're in trouble here, Lord.  pay attention."  If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord who could stand?  Now is no time to remind us of our faults and failures. But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.  We're counting on it.  It is the foundation of our devotion.  I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning. Waiting is the part I have the most trouble with. Give me the spirit of the ancient watchmen.  I do find hope in your word, but hope is hard to hang on to when the morning seems so far away. O Israel, hope in the Lord!  For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.  It is the steadfastness of your love than speaks the most to my heart.  Make your love known so that we can make it through this particular night.

Dave Gladstone