From most accounts, it looks like the pandemic is weakening, and “normal” is beginning to return. Because of this forward progress, we might be prone to believe all individuals are moving forward as well.

However, like Covid itself, recovery isn’t a straight line, and many are still feeling the physical, economic, emotional, and mental effects of the past year or going through new struggles.




Also, we may tend to forget, that not everything is Covid related. Life in general, with all its issues, was and is still going on.

Therefore I would like to share with you Lauren Daigle’s newly released song––“Hold on to Me.” I think it can speak to all of us, in whatever struggle we might be experiencing, and remind us of that as John 10:28 says, we are held securely in the Father’s hand, the best and safest place to be.

This is so true, but we also shouldn’t forget that we are God’s hands and feet here on earth, so while God has us firmly in his grip, we can be the physical manifestation of His encompassing hug, firm hand, and very real presence.

I could hear the rain pelting the metal awnings outside my dining area and the wind playing havoc with the wind chimes. Then, suddenly, all went quiet . . . and I knew what that meant. I got up from the couch and looked out the front window and there it was–– drifting down in the gleam of the streetlamp––snow.

Though I live in the Northstate . . . where the Coastal, Trinity, and Cascade mountains meet, and only about 50 miles from both Mt. Shasta and Mt. Lassen . . . at 495 feet, snow is not a frequent visitor here. Except for our occasional Snowmageddon events (1-2 feet) once every ten years or so, we are mostly a “one and done” –– “6 inches” –– kind of community.

Though snow, like every other weather pattern, has its dangers and causes problems, it––above all others––has a special image and beauty. It is pristine and connotes peace and purity. And there is something magical about a snow-swept landscape before a single person has walked across it.

Perhaps then it is no surprise that the Bible uses “snow” to show how God can cleanse us from our sins––completely and beyond our expectations:

“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).

Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (Psalm 51:7).

But it’s not only that.

My cousin, who lives in Southern California, shared the above photo with the family the other day. It was a wonderful reminder to me. No, it wasn’t the beautiful snow-covered San Bernardino Mountains that captured my attention. It was the dichotomy in the foreground––the juxtaposition of palm trees and snow.

Sometimes we think we have strayed too far, or experienced too much hurt, or _____ (fill in the blank), for God to find us. But that snow next to those palm trees reminded me that we are never out of reach of God’s love, mercy, or forgiveness. He knows exactly where we are and can bless us anywhere. As Romans 8:38-39 reminds us, nothing can separate us from His love.

I am ashamed of myself.

I let partisanship ideology and the media interfere with my appreciating an individual and her contributions.

What I knew about Ruth Bader Ginsburg before her death was minimal and centered around the decisions I disagreed with. But I am now realizing that there was so much more to the person and her contributions. Justice Scalia knew this. But somehow I, and many others like me, didn’t. Or lost sight of it. We put Justice Ginsberg in a very small box and set her aside even though a lot of her decisions helped us personally.

This is just another example of how micro-focusing on one issue and disregarding everything else further divides of our country. Where a disagreement on an issue justifies discounting the entire individual.

Yes, as Christians, we are to be discerning, adhering to Godly principles and standing up for Christian values, but at the very core of the Christian life is Christ himself, who loved the world--all the lost—so much that he willingly died for all of us. We are asked to love not kill others with our rhetoric, animosity, or self-righteousness.

So we can never stray from Jesus’s answer to the Pharisees when they asked him what is the greatest commandment. They wanted to trap him, to prove him wrong, or catch him in a contradiction. (Sound familiar to anyone?) His answer cut through it all.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-38).

I have attached Josh Wilson’s new song “Revolutionary.”  It captures what is happening in our country, Jesus’s command to love, and a way to move forward.