“Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Tell of his salvation from day to day.” -1 Chronicles 16:23 (NRSV)

My guilty pleasure is singing along to music in the car. The Beach Boys make Seattle traffic palatable. On my coffee runs to the Starbucks at the George Hopper exit in April 2020, I used to sing along to my praise playlist on my iPod. Eventually, I will make my first Trader Joe’s run since March 2020, and I am trying to decide what music will accompany that trip. Since I don’t get to scratch my musical itch with choir, this has to suffice for the moment.

Being able to sing is a large part of how I engage my faith. God speaks to me more often through hymns and choir anthems than through Scripture or something audible. One of the hardest things for me in the last 18 months has been not being able to sing hymns with the congregation even during Zoom because of the small delay on Zoom that makes it hard for me to be in sync with the music. I missed singing Christmas carols (though I will admit to sitting back and listening to David Sloat sing because of his amazing voice), and there are certain Easter hymns that I missed out on for two Easters straight. While I was able to participate via virtual choir anthems, it is not the same as singing live with a choir because you are recording by yourself and don’t have the benefit of others around you to help you tune and whose energy you feed off of as you sing.

As we are now back in the sanctuary, getting to sing hymns in the choir loft is saving me right now because it is how I am slowly getting back this thing that feeds me so much that the pandemic had taken from me. Until things get completely back to normal and our church choir resumes, however, you will find me in the driver’s seat of my Subaru Impreza singing along to Rend Collective.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us the gift of music and the ability to pray twice through making it. Bring us through this season of limited music opportunities and bring us back together in our choirs soon. Amen.
-Jen McCabe

“The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation…” –2 Samuel 22:47 (NRSV)

When we lived in Minnesota our family became close friends with another family in our parish. We had two sons in elementary school; they had two sons in elementary school. We had a lot in common. Together we were active in the parish and we enjoyed camping, canoeing, sharing meals, and spending time together.

Bruce and Penny were “rockhounds” and their favorite rocks were agates. They would find the agates, which were plentiful in our area; Bruce would polish them, and Penny would make lovely jewelry from some of them.

We knew nothing about agates, but they taught us to find them. We spent hours walking rocky beaches and along creek beds looking down for the telltale reddish-brown stones, which when immersed in liquid and held to the light had a slight glow. Ultimately, we had enough stones that Bruce convinced me to buy a small polisher which tumbled the stones together with a grit and then a polisher for days, knocking off the rough edges and exposing the amazing patterns and striations of the polished agate.

One of the things that have saved me during this pandemic has been looking at my jar of polished agates – my rocks! I hold them to the light examining them closely. I feel how smooth (or in some cases not so smooth) they are. Most of all, I fondly remember our friends and the wonderful times we shared.

Thank you, God, for the gift of the wide variety of rocks on this earth. Thank you also for the gift of friendship and fond memories. Most of all, thank you for surrounding us with love. Amen.
-Cathey Frederick

“I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” -2 Samuel 22:4 (NRSV)

My enemies have to be seen under a microscope, the tiny bits of protein called COVID 19 are stealthy, pervasive, deadly, and know no barriers. It’s been invited to choir practices, family reunions, nursing homes, cruises, schools, conventions, parties, and more.

I’ve become numb to COVID watching the news, patients on ventilators, hospital personnel in hazmat suits, people getting swabs stuck up their nose, lots of needles, massive cremations in India, people dying for lack of oxygen, millions of deaths, charts with lines going up instead of down, wearing masks a way of life, mind-numbing statistics and wash, wash, and wash.

So what is saving my life now? Walking. I have made a habit of walking thirty minutes or more every morning. Of course, there are days when I walk at a different time, or I am on a trip or there has been a ginormous snowfall and it is not safe, but still, I keep on walking.

My walk takes me to Eaglemont Golf Course, a round trip of about a mile and I encounter all kinds of weather, numbing cold, ice, snow, wind, warm, hot, chilly, thunderstorms, smokey and rain, rain, rain.

I also meet people along the way –that’s the best part of my walk, my walking buddies. It’s a time to stop and chat and find out what is going on in their lives, a time to greet my four-legged furry friends, a chance to hear good news, show empathy when I hear bad news, and the fact that we are physically able to enjoy God’s creation.

I also bring home objects that I find along the way. My husband Dennis never knows what surprises I will bring home. I have brought back rocks, bird feathers, salamanders, bird eggshells, leaves, a giant bullfrog (I picked him/her up about a quarter into my walk and carried the poor creature back home, took some photos and he got his first and only car ride back to the beaver pond near the clubhouse.), a VISA credit card, and cell phone photos of interesting objects.

So this is how I am saved from my enemy, COVID 19. I walk, I talk, I cry, I wish I could hug, I snuggle furry four-legged puppies, I pray and thank the Lord who is worthy to be praised.

Dear Lord in Heaven, thank you for people all over the world that have worked hard and continue to work on finding vaccines for COVID. Thank you for folks that have received the shots and continue to use masks and social distancing and thank you for your wonderful creation. Amen.
-Mary Ann Taylor

“My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence.” -2 Samuel 22:3 (NRSV)

The wind is blowing hard as I write this. The leaves on the tree have turned brown and yellow; they’re struggling to hang on, but it’s hopeless. They may cling yet a little longer, but if the gusts don’t rip them off today, gravity will take care of them soon enough. Nature is in no hurry, and as it turns out, neither am I. During the early stages of the pandemic, I hunkered down, intending to ride out the storm. I washed my hands, kept my distance, wore my masks dutifully and properly whether they were mandated or not. I took my shots when they became available. I did it all without fear or loathing, because I know I am in the hands of God. God is my Rock. God is my Stronghold. I hear the bugler sounding the Assembly to gather. All in all, I don’t believe God rescues me from the external violence of a world gone mad, but from the internal violence of a soul that wants to hang on, when God has called that soul to let go. Let the leaf fall, for, in the end, it is returning home. I am on the homeward leg of my own Journey, my Advent adventure.

Gracious God, our time is in your hands, as are we. You hold on tight to us so that we don’t need to hang tight to things that pass away. Thank you so much for being with us always, as life with you is truly eternal. Amen.
– Fr. Keith Axberg

“The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” -Exodus 15:2 (NRSV)

This verse from Exodus is part of a longer hymn sung on the banks of the Red Sea to honor God for delivering the Israelites from the Egyptian army. Whatever doubts the Israelites had about God’s power to save, or Moses’ legitimacy as a leader, were washed away with their enemies. Today, COVID is a worldwide enemy, leading to last year’s shutdown. This event didn’t hit me as hard as it did many others, because I had already been isolated for a long time. A slow-to-heal broken foot and a life-threatening virus plus pneumonia had kept me either in the hospital or at home for about 16 months. So I segued right into the COVID isolation. The thing about being isolated is that it opens up the space and time an introvert like me craves. While regretting the loss of familiar routines and personal connections, I also welcomed the calm, the quiet, and the blank pages in my calendar. Time had slowed down, so I could too. I passed that time in much the same way through both periods: read books, watched old movies, made a baby sweater and two quilts, and did rehab exercises. When Zoom kicked in, I renewed connections. But what actually sustained and stabilized me, what gave a framework to each day and renewed my spirit was my spiritual practice. I re-kindled my former habit of morning prayer, spiritual reading, and meditation. Reading and reflecting on the way God works in the world, becoming more aware of that Holy Presence, became my real salvation. Sitting by the window I could watch the seasons change as my thoughts about “grit and grace” and God organized themselves, or just floated away like clouds, leaving a sense of peace and gratitude. When events set me back, I leaned on God, even more, relying on his strength and might where mine failed. God’s faithfulness saved me from the plague of darkness, weakness, frustration, and fear, and brought me to a brighter day.

Holy Presence, renew me each day. Be the light on my path, the fire in my soul, the hope in my heart. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
-Carol Treston

In her book, An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor describes an interesting preaching invitation she received.

Many years ago now, a wise old priest invited me to come speak at his church in Alabama. “What do you want me to talk about?” I asked him.

“Come tell us what is saving your life now,” he answered.

The idea for this devotional booklet’s theme came to me when Daniel had class canceled due to a potential COVID exposure. (Both of us tested negative, but he was still out of school for the week.) A friend of a dear friend had just passed away from COVID, and another friend had just lost her husband that day from cancer. I needed to get out of the house, so we went through the McDonald’s drive-thru to get French fries for him, and I was driving around to give him a chance to eat them. My iPod was set to my Praise & Worship playlist, and songs kept coming on that were speaking to me in a way that was sorely needed at that moment, and the story from An Altar in the World popped into my mind.

Life since COVID burst onto the scene has been difficult. According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 255 million positive COVID cases worldwide and 5.1 million deaths. According to the CDC, there have been 47.4 million cases in the USA and deaths are approaching 800,000. The pandemic has contributed to an economic downturn, exacerbated supply chain shortages, and increased unemployment. In Skagit County, we can add flooding to the list of things adding to the stress level of people.

In this time when good news seems to be in short supply, the question of what is saving us and giving us the hope to persevere is an important one. I posed the question to various people at St. Paul’s, and their answers make up this booklet. Each day’s reflection has a Bible verse, a short meditation, and a prayer at the end.

There is also a playlist here for you to enjoy. It is music that has been saving me for the last 18 months.

May this booklet bless you and give you hope as we prepare again for the coming of our King this Advent.
-Jen McCabe