Settled Secure And Safe

Thanksgiving Monday has presented itself with a bright blue sky and moderate temperature. It is 50 degrees and I am on my writing porch and comfortable in a medium jacket. Another drug company has announced that it should have a Covid-19 vaccine ready early in tbe New Year. The challenges of 2020…will shrink in 2021.

I have watched as our political and religious discourse has morphed from ‘peace of mind’… to ‘piece of my mind.’ Certain recognized facts and truths have been attacked and given the life of a ‘Frankenstein Monster’…as we all retreat to our WWI Trenches to raise our heads and aim and fire at our ideological enemies! Soon we lower our heads in sorrow and despair when we see that the fight is useless and the righteous of our cause is still not accepted by our adversary who is blind to the truth!

We desire to be settled. Nothing magnifies this hope more than the holidays. During normal years…and not our 2020 pandemic…we create the feast for all of our family and friends and even the stranger among us! This year…our 2020 pandemic year…we look longingly at the famous Norman Rockwell painting of the happy family around the large and heavily laden Thanksgiving table. Being safe this year will cause us to fulfill that painting…next year. It seems a peaceful mind emanates from a peaceful heart. ‘A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.’ Proverbs 17:22

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Security is a chameleon that we chase…often…for the majority of our life. We know that if we can just aquire enough money and land and houses and barns…we will suddenly be endued with the calmness of a feeling of security. I think that a secure feeling has its home inside our heart…rather than our external circumstances. Things change. I watched a fascinating movie on Amazon Prime yesterday called ‘The Nest.’ In the flick one of the main characters commented that once he had a million dollars…and this was in the 1980s, but that finally it was all used up…it was all gone. Of course we require money to pay for our human needs…but not particularly our wants…

Safety comes from assuring that our neighbors are not food insecure. It comes from working to provide shelter for the homeless and clothes and love for the marginalized of our society. Safety does not come from people carrying long guns to the grocery store…it comes from purchasing groceries for the hungry!

This Thursday let us paint the Norman Rockwell painting of Thanksgiving with images of those who we have helped feed and clothe and protect from freezing temperatures…sitting around the Storied Table…