Dear Epiphany Families,
I’ve shed a lot of tears this week. The surge. The Governor’s school announcement. These days are full of pain and loss.
Months ago, in the “before,” I wrote here about my fancy video doorbell, which mercilessly recorded our family efforts to get out the door on time. It involved me yelling a lot of “hurry!” and “I said now!” and “those are not pants!”
Today I opened that doorbell app for the first time in a while and as you might guess, these days our recordings are completely different. But they surprised me, especially given my tears this week. Do you know what I’m seeing?
I see us throwing open the door when we see a friend walk by, and yelling “hello!” and “I miss you!” and “We love you!”
I see friends making us chalk messages of hope, and I see us walking out with handfulls of chalk to do the same for them.
I see us calling “Thank you Doug!” to our UPS driver after he leaves us a package.
I see us having “art class” on the lawn.
I see us measuring sprouts and buds for “science.”
I see us laughing and laughing while we learn badminton as a family.
I see my spouse on a ladder retrieving the “birdies” from the gutter.
I see my friend dropping off some of her sour dough starter so we can all bake bread together-apart.
I see my huge smile when the toilet paper arrived!
In the day-to-day, moment-to-moment difficulty of this crisis I just didn't realize what was happening on my front lawn. These joys were hidden and now they're a long movie of little joys and kindnesses. (All is forgiven, blunt and truthful doorbell, for this gift.) I pray we all continue to seek and find these little moments of joy, laughter, rejoicing and thanksgiving. May we collect them in an album in our hearts and minds.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice. God's joy is still ever-present.
Peace be with you, Bryn
bhollenbeck@3crowns.org
