An email reminder: phone banking check-in on Zoom tonight. (I registered
to help get out the vote; there was a problem with me signing in, and I left it
unresolved, and am now feeling guilty when I get these messages because as yet
I have not resolved the problem, and therefore phoned nobody). A recurring
pop-up message every time I turn on my computer: ‘there is a problem with your Microsoft
account which we need to fix’. (I have tried to fix it many times and every
time I run into a problem with my name, and I give up. Slightly fearful that
one day it really will matter.). A Zoom link to tonight’s church prayer group
sits in my inbox. (The slow speed of our internet undermined my resolve to continue
with the prayer group; now our speed has been increased, but between phoning Mom
at 5.30 and trying to get dinner on the table and into my stomach before 6.45,
I just give up). A WhatsApp message on my phone reminds me that Mom has an eye
appointment in November which the care staff made in August; (I have yet to
telephone the eye doctor and ensure that the insurance covered the cost of that
last appointment).
I could go on, but you get my point. My intentions are good: I
want things done in an orderly way and completed neatly and tidily, but somehow
it doesn’t always work like that.
My fourth grade teacher, Mrs Costuma, taught me many things, and
one was about composition. Always conclude your essay with a reference to what
you declared at the beginning, because in so doing you ‘tie it up with a big
red ribbon. That advice has stuck with me for decades. And yet, so much of my
life is messy, unresolved, and certainly not ‘tied up with a big red ribbon’.
Long ago the LORD said to Israel:
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I
have drawn you to myself.’ (Jeremiah 31:3) I am so grateful that the
Lord doesn’t leave his creation unresolved.
‘And I am certain that God, who
began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally
finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.’ (Phil 1:6)
I thank God today that at the end
of my life, he will gather in all the loose ends and somehow tie it up with a
big red ribbon.
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