Toboggan Run

 

I was about 16 years old, and had gone up to Big Bear Mountain for a church youth group retreat. It was one of the first times I had been in snow. We found a slope to sled down.

My friend Carole had a toboggan. She and her family had lived ‘back east’ where they had plenty of hills and snow. She knew how to control a toboggan, as it’s all in the leaning (maybe like a motorcycle?) rather than a steering device. I didn’t know anything.

Carole instructed me to get on the toboggan in front, and she would get on behind me. I clambered on. It was a very steep slope, and Carole couldn’t hold it. I shot off alone, gathering speed down the hill which was peppered with soaring pine trees and ended in a two-foot drop onto a lay-by, and then the main road.

I did what came naturally. I closed my eyes. By the grace of God, I didn’t slam into a tree. I shot off the short drop as if it were a ski-jump and landed, clunk, in the lay-by. By the grace of God, I didn’t slam into a car, or skid into one’s path. I had a jarring thud to my spine, but nothing worse.

Life is often like that scary slide down the mountain. While it is tempting to do what comes naturally, and just close my eyes to world events and climate change, it isn’t an option. I need to keep my eyes open to be able to pray knowledgably and do what I can. Like the boy with the starfish on the shore.

And so yesterday I did some craft with a 7-year-old Ukrainian refugee, who speaks no English. She watched me soberly as I tried to remember how Flick showed me to make a Chinese fan. After one mistake, I managed. Then we tried to make a yarn doll. Years since I did that, and it wasn’t a great success. But at the end of the day, she gathered her treasures, some crafted creatively by herself, and in amongst them, were the things I’d made with her. This morning she made a bracelet for me, delivered in silence, without a smile. It’s on my wrist.

This poor traumatised wee girl. I didn’t do much, but I hope that she has felt safe, and sensed the love and kindness of God through my clumsy attempts to connect.

I pray this terrible war will finish, by the grace and mercy of God. And that by his grace and mercy, he will protect the young and vulnerable ones from slamming into a tree.