“Oh, Jesus, do all that you will with us Lord! We are yours!”
Amy Hanson
A family favorite around the Gerlach Thanksgiving dessert buffet is a simple treat originally shared by Heidi Bleeker. (She and I go way back, even before the teenagers leading the youth group charge were ideas in our minds.) It’s simple: saltine crackers placed on a cookie sheet, creamy, buttery brown sugar atop, polka-dot chocolate chips on the hot butter, spreading as the chips soften*. Once cooled, the toffee treats are cut into puzzle pieces and devoured by young and old. A tasty classic, they offer a bit of salty and sweet, smoothness and crunch, each aspect bringing out the other.
This year kind of feels like those saltine toffee cookies: salty and sweet, smooth and crunchy. How can a year of so many unprecedented challenges have any blessings? It’s only through the work of Our Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Anxiety and depression have ruled over many this year with the uncertainty of health and job security, isolation and loneliness, many disappointments, and cancellation after cancellation. Anna Palfreeman shares, “It's hard to have to cancel so many plans [and] hangouts [because of a cold]; there are so many consequences to getting sick right now.” A deep grief seems to have covered the country and local community as we have prayed for those who were sick or could become so, and while watching everything we thought would never change, change in a minute.
“We really miss seeing grandparents as much as we used to. No one in our family had a birthday party this year. The kids miss their friends, and I miss seeing people and having grow-up conversation. We miss our homeschool co-op and field trips,” shares Tavia White, whose parents Kep and Carolyn Stone also attend The Vine. Kep shares their grandchildren’s disappointment, “[We’ve been] unable to spend in-person time with our daughter, her husband, and our four grandkids.”
And it’s not just families with young children struggling to adjust, as even college classes have transitioned to online. “The biggest negative was for my son who signed up for college classes. He is not an online-learner and struggled through three classes, failing one. His VA school benefits have been put on hold until he can prove he can pass his next class, which he has to pay for himself…difficult to do when he can’t get sustainable work during COVID. There is no extra money,” laments a church member.
An elderly church member shares that her family was the reason she kept the will to live while battling an illness before the COVID shutdown. Upon her recovery, she was one of the first people in our area to contract COVID-19. But when she was released, “The family I fought to get better for has not been able to be around each other. But I thank God that he continues to use my family to serve him. We will have an eternity to be together.”
The sweetness has shown itself as well. With the COVID shutdowns, individual families have spent more time together than ever before. Dads and Moms working from home and after-school activities cancelled lent to regular family walks, lunches together, board and card games, and creative sibling bonding. With family and friends near and far now unable to see one another, the technology of Zoom has become a household name. It’s even the tool we rely upon for Sunday worship! Only God could turn something so salty into something so sweet. Karen Schickling shares her struggle with isolation and loss of income, but “[It] has made me get into some organization at home, things I’ve been putting off, downsizing, and foremost more time in prayer and in scripture.”
Amy Hanson, whose husband John has been an essential worker throughout COVID, reflects, “The ongoing nature of this crisis has forced [us] to talk through his history of anxiety and depression on deeper levels than ever before. This crisis has not presented a clear finish line; [which] has been a catalyst for us to seek outside help, prayer for healing, and discover ways to promote health for the long-term.”
Division, a salty relative of anxiety and depression, have reigned in our world this year too. To mask or not? To open or close? As Christians, we get to discern wisdom from God (James 1:5) and are told to respect those in authority over us as a society (Romans 13:1-2). Kelsi McGann comments, “[This season has] been pretty dividing as far a what loving your neighbor looks like. Some say masks show your lack of faith, others say wearing a mask shows compassion for others. The church has been divided on this, and the division is what’s most frustrating.”
Simultaneously, the season has provided for sweet unity in new ways. The $11,000 raised for the Community Care Fund is only one way our church has united to help those in need. (Read more about the CCF here and here.)
Sweetly, the Elder Team has been in consensus frequently as they have led our congregation in decisions about how to meet safely. Each coming to the crisis from different backgrounds, perspectives, and concerns, a peace seemed to cover each one. Says Brandon Hudson, “During this difficult season the elders have learned even more the need to press in and seek the wisdom of God. He’s guided us in ways we couldn’t have imagined a year ago.”
God has also been generous in knitting together the hearts of His people through a deepening of prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit. Prayer groups have formed over Zoom and after in-person service on Sundays, and wonderful things are happening. Says Anne Dunn of her community and prayer group over Zoom, “[We] greatly appreciate Zoom and the opportunity to get to know more people through our small group. We’ve grown in numbers and in closeness to one another. I believe God is at work in this whole pandemic, through our times of prayer and outreach to one another.”
Of the post-service prayer group, Thien Lai shares, “As people began to come to us each week, we've seen God do everything from healing back pain completely to reducing the swelling in limbs. What we've also seen is God's healing work in our hearts and spiritual lives. God has been freeing our members from anxiety, fear, brokenness, shame, and guilt. We are seeing the Holy Spirit bring spiritual strength and restoration in families.” The group has seen miracles among them and in their broader communities as the reliance on prayer has become a daily necessity.
Although this year has been seasoned with challenges, God is also using this time to show his beauty and kindness. Thien summarizes it well, “Healing seems to be coming both internally and externally. God is teaching us along the way, it has been a beautiful journey of trust, vulnerability, new life, and encouragement. Through this work we should only expect to see the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."
This season of Thanksgiving, remember some of the ways God has blessed you this year. From darkness comes an appreciation of light, from cold an appreciation of warmth, from salty an appreciation of sweet. As we have seen in our study of Genesis this year, God is capable of changing the worst of situations to those that glorify Him.
Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
James 1:5- If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
Romans 13:12— Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
*https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/11376/saltine-toffee-cookies/