Springing Forward

Dear Friends,

My, how time is moving differently these days. The clocks have sprung forward, the days are lengthening, and the daffodil sprouts are peeping out in Central Park. It is officially Spring, and I venture all of us have noticed the change of season and look forward to what is to come.

There is another way we’re all telling time right now as well, or noticing the passing of it: vaccinations. For what was once such a personal matter as health and inoculations, it seems to be now perfectly acceptable to inquire “have you had the shot? Which one? One or two?” Some of us are marking time waiting to get the first vaccine; some of us are in the three or four week limbo between shot one and shot two; some of us are now fully vaccinated and may be asking “when can we get back to normal?” This is an odd way of telling time in my book, or at least a new one, but there’s little to this past year that I wouldn’t have thought odd just a few years ago.

One thing about time—and vaccines, and the pandemic, and what’s on the other side—is that it only moves in one direction: forward. We are not going back to whatever life was like before this pandemic, we are moving forward. Forward with the budding trees and signs of resurrection, forward with masks to protect the least among us, forward with or without or in between vaccines, we are moving forward. Time is telling the tale.

As we all move forward together, take a moment this day to notice how you’re marking time. What makes this day the present, and how can you stay more fully in it? Whatever expectations you may have for tomorrow, mark this day as the one our God has made just for you.

Be well beloved,

Pastor Will