At Least One Thing Never Changes

Virginia has wide temperature variations and quick changes in weather patterns.

Last week, ice and snow covered the ground, and the birds were silent. The whole earth was quiet except for the crunch of my feet on the frozen path.

On my walk yesterday, a bright red cardinal perched on the top of a green pine tree and sang joyfully. Two geese flew so closely overhead I could hear the flap of their wings even before they announced their presence with loud squawks. A mockingbird chanted a litany from a low bush on the side of the path. The rat-tat-tat of a woodpecker drummed from somewhere unseen slightly above me. There was so much activity I laughed and thought, “We need an air traffic controller!”

Much had changed in a short time. Life is the same way sometimes, isn’t it?

I remember working shifts in the ER when car accidents and heart attacks changed lives in an instant. I’ve experienced those same changes at home: one moment a full house of waddling toddlers or noisy teenagers, the next a household of only one. Sometimes change is disconcerting and even frightening. I wonder, “Why can’t things stay the same?”

Life is never the same; that’s one thing we can count on.

But there is something that never changes, or rather someone.  

God never changes, and He never leaves. He’s in the quiet of the gentle snowfall and in the activity of the spring. He’s in the commotion of a full house and the solitude of an empty one. He’s in the moments of sadness and hurt and the ones of joy and laughter. And His love is right there through it all.

No matter how much life changes, God does not.

Thank you, God, for being the same yesterday, today and tomorrow;
for being with me in the joy, the sorrow,
the hectic, the boring, the storms,
the peace – in everything.
Amen.

If you know someone who needs this encouragement, please share. And don’t forget to ‘like’ if you do!

We Can Help Each Other

It had been a hard day at work, and I was tired and hungry. I didn’t even bother to flick the light switches as I walked down the long front hallway.

I dropped my bag into the chair, hung my coat on the invisible hook, and walked mindlessly into the dark kitchen. A collision with the unexpectedly wide-open pantry door startled me to attention. I mumbled angrily and massaged my wounded forehead. With my next step, I slipped in something crunchy on the floor and nearly landed flat on my back. When I finally got the light on, a confusing site met me. It looked like a crime scene.

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The Christmas Pizza

An updated 2020 version………

Between over-decorating, over-eating and over-spending, the Christmas season can be overwhelming. Add the stress of Covid 19 and its easy to feel cheerless and exhausted. It doesn’t have to be that way, as I learned the Christmas Neil was in the hospital.

It was only three months after his diagnosis, but deep down we all knew it was his last Christmas. Things weren’t going well with his chemo, his appetite and energy were fading, and the team of doctors on his case bounced him back and forth because no one wanted to face the Christmas elephant in the room.

In typical Neil fashion, he was excited about the holiday even from his hospital bed, and I had no intention of leaving him alone. That meant there were no decorations at home other than the few I set up before he went into the hospital. There were no gifts except for the ones I purchased earlier that year. Wrapping and Christmas cards? Nope. Not even Christmas dinner.

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