“Turn, O Lord, save my life; deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.” -Psalm 6:4 (NRSV)

I cannot accurately describe the fear that has existed in me regarding the possibility of getting COVID. Having had respiratory problems from a young age and being asthmatic, the idea of a deadly disease that attacks the lungs is terrifying. My parents have been present with me in the emergency room and hospital through asthma exacerbation and pneumonia, so they share that fear. Add in my son Daniel who has spent time in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) on a ventilator with a mysterious respiratory disorder, and you have a perfect storm. Daniel did school by remote learning for a year (which was a horrible but necessary option), I worked only online for 18 months, and the family did not leave the house except for grocery shopping and medical appointments.

What is saving me right now quite literally as I sit at home on a Sunday morning with asthma exacerbation, is the availability of vaccines against COVID. They are not perfect and there are indeed breakthrough COVID cases, but it means that people like me will likely just have cold symptoms instead of ending up on ventilators. The world came together to fund the research for the vaccines, scientists were able to draw on research into other viruses and vaccines for those, and the FDA cut the red tape in the process to get the vaccines approved. The ingenuity of researchers astonishes me as the use of mRNA is quite novel, and we are finding that it does indeed work well in telling the body how to build the spike protein on the outside of the coronavirus so that it knows to destroy it. Praise God for the ways in which scientists can work in changing situations.

Lord, you are the Great Physician and the Healer of our Souls. Thank you for the inspiration You give to scientists and the incredible ways the human body works. Help us to make ethical decisions as we pursue treatments like this and continue to enlighten and inspire researchers as they explore the ways Your creation works. Amen.
-Jen McCabe

“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