Five days until Christmas. It is a lovely day in Little Egypt…with an appropriate temperature for two days before the beginning of winter. Yesterday it truly looked like the Christmas Season was in full array with a 30-minute wait at the Post Office and traffic abounding on every street and lane. Pastor Kerry spoke of his favorite Christmas television show, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and it is one of my favorites as well… I remember first seeing the program when it Premiered in 1965. I was 8 years old and enjoyed the show…as I loved the Peanuts characters…but I was mesmerized when Linus recited the Biblical account of the birth of Jesus… Peanuts was a popular cartoon…and yet the miracle of Christ’s birth was an integral part of the program.

Uncertainty barks at our heels. In the height of our revelries and at the zenith of our joy…change and reversals and danger…lurk. A new variant of covid is sweeping the globe. Christmas travel is upon us…fellowship with family and friends and loved ones…is here… Vaccinations and booster shots are required…and yet there is still danger… If we did not remember the past…we would believe that someone is out to get us. Life is challenging and seemingly never more so…than today. But…our ancestors experienced a lot of bad days. The devastation of the Great Depression…World War II…Korean War…Vietnam… LIfe is more of a roller coaster ride than a walk in the park. We are happiest when we focus on the well-being of others.

Station Eleven is a great book that is written by Emily St. John Mandel that has been made into a limited min-series on HBO/Max. It is a hopeful post-apocalyptical program about the beauty of life and a Shakesperean Theatre Troop that travels throughout the land…and brings Art and hope to the survivors of a pandemic. Indeed it may seem like the worst of times to have a show about a pandemic when we are in the midst of a pandemic…but it is a show of hope and faith and life…that is appropriate for our times.

So, we must get vaccinated and boosted and wear a face mask and if we do so…the devastation of our Pandemic will subside and life can return to normalcy…as we know it. Spells or incantations or political rhetoric will not stop covid…vaccination will…if we all partake…and stop providing a home for the Virus…