Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Living as Guests
in God’s good Creation,
We are all aliens,
We are all inheritors of God’s blessings.
Genesis 26:3
Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
1 Peter 1:17
If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.
Words of Grace For Today
Are we aliens, guests on earth, in exile?
So many people on earth today are not able to live in their home land. So many people are exiled by violence or political differences with those that rule with cruelty at home.
They are aliens, in exile, yet we recognize they belong on earth, or at least we sort of recognize them as residents of earth.
In all our lives there are times, like Advent, that are not times for themselves, but times of waiting or of transition, when we anticipate with great expectations that things will be different, better. We anticipate that we will eventually no longer just be aliens, but that this will be our land, our home land, our place and time that God promises us and all people will recognize that it is ours, by God’s Grace alone.
Covid 19 is in a second wave, much worse than the first, still ineptly dealt with by so many governments, like at home in Alberta where the government, ideologically, holds that the economy is more important than the individual lives of the residents in this province. Restrictions are finally set in place weeks too late and multitudes of degrees too slack. Trying to protect the economy the government sacrifices health care for almost everyone, making room for Covid cases in the hospitals. The government sacrifices lives of people who die from the infection. The government sacrifices the long term health of so many people who suffer debilitating organ damage though they survive the virus’s first attack.
The government does this because it’s political base is not in the cities, which are harder hit than the rural areas where it’s support is strongest.
The government does this because it’s political base is the business owners, not the workers. The government does this because it does not value essential workers like doctors and health care workers (who they have fought against to drastically cut their compensation over the last few years.) The government does this because it supports big business and oil industry. The small people, the scientific evidence, the best real path forward is not important. Instead of the best path forward, science and prevention and providing health care for everyone does not matter. What matters is the political moves that can be made in the confusion of Covid 19. Well, we got what the majority chose: a government that is unto itself and lies to maintain it’s power. We’ve got what we deserve.
Thankfully God does not leave it there.
God walks with us, in a foreign land, and in our home land. We are God’s people, all of us God’s creatures.
We may be in exile at home with a government that does not have our interests, yet alone survival, in mind. God will soon enough deliver us. We can wait, patiently, and prepare ourselves to receive God’s Son, as he was born millennia ago, and as he comes each day, and to await for his return.
We can wait to celebrate Christmas until Christmas proper. We can take to heart Advent as the time of waiting in wonder that it is.
Blue with hope, that’s the children of God …
for now, for these four weeks.