Stevig is a good word for these Covid times. It requires a sturdiness. I think it is the Jewish proverb that goes, “I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.” I hope very much that we will look back on this time as a moment in our history when we pulled together as families, as friends, as communities and as Canadians. We weren’t just taking care that our own pantries were filled but that we were generous in every way we could be. Let’s be stevig during this time, with broad shoulders to bare one another up.
Let Us Give Thanks
Let us give thanks this moment:
for the sturdy fact of God’s continuing love,
for mercies which go before us
and follow after us,
for those free gifts
which cost God so much.
Let us give thanks:
for memory and expectation,
for the good that we have known
and know today in Jesus Christ,
for the Spirit’s brooding presence
in our nights and our days.
Let us give thanks:
for pleasures which comfort
and pains which force our growth
and keep us at the Shepherd’s side,
for deep meanings revealed
and mysteries mercifully concealed,
for the image of God within us,
the capacity to inquire and adore.
Let us give thanks for one another,
for just being together,
for differences that complement and complete,
for gifts which enrich
and disagreements which challenge,
for our oneness in Christ.
Let us give thanks for melody and mirth,
for rhythm and beat,
for the repeated and the common,
for the ever-unfolding,
and for senses with which to respond.
And let us give thanks for Someone to thank.
Gerhard Frost