The year is 2020. I look out my window at the beauty of the older trees standing tall in the breezes - their branches and frames bending and curling from traumas of the storms they gallantly stood through in their lives. Their brown and graceful branches are so strong and resilient. I marvel at the beauty of each, as branch after branch reaches skyward toward the sun. I understand why now. It is all beginning to make sense to me. They are reaching out to God.
I begin this blog while sitting in the midst of a pandemic that has held my friends and loved ones captive with fear for over 8 months. Our enemy is invisible. It is so easy to imagine things about it - that it is not there, that it is only in our imaginations, that it is coming for us, or that we will surely be caught and die from it. As of this very moment I write, there are 254,000 souls who have succumbed to it, and we are being told that it is growing exponentially, a word that has never been applied to anything in my life before.
At this very same time there is a new vaccine that is almost ready to be released and administered to us. We do not know the long- term effects of this, nor do we know for how long it renders us immune to this virus that floats thru our air. Some are as afraid to get this life- saving vaccine, as to contract this virus.
As the human mind imprisons us in a no-win situation, outside of the emotional turmoil of a pandemic lies the incredible chaos of our United States election results. Having no leadership at present, the two political sides fight for the future of our country. The one who was defeated is refusing to concede, while the one who rightly won the election is paralyzed by laws and rules. Our government is powerless to a bureaucratic standstill as we are imprisoned collectively. Every man is having to navigate this chaos, caught in the spiral of winds and storms unlike anything we have ever seen or lived through. We are each alone within our mind prisons.
Without God, man is at the mercy of his insecure mind, allowing the storm to twist and tear him into pieces. Without God, man has no anchor, no hope - nothing to rely upon but what he calls fate. Without God, we have no guidance or captain of the ship other than a mind that relies upon its own limited perceptions and stories. This mortal chaos is far bigger than our small minds can navigate. What does man do?
It is quite simple. Man turns to God. We listen intently to the voice of God. There is no other leader who can shepherd us to greener pastures of health. There is no other leader who knows our hearts so well and understands how our minds mislead us. There is none other than God who can bring us to a safer tomorrow, so we may exist in freedom and love. So, may the gifts of this book be a prayer that we say and follow through the rest of our days in existence. And may we forever exist in Him and with Him, listening to the words of His dream for us. For surely, it is our minds that have gotten us here, and it is only He who knows the way out of here.
The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me through still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou annointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Psalm 23:1-6
Frannie Rose
November 23, 2020