We’ll see

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ (John 1:45-46)

Cold winter wind buffets the west wall as night overtakes the leaden gray of this January day. The house flexes and creaks in the onslaught, irregular bursts of winter wildness sure to surround our sleep before dark gives way to the iron-gray smudge of a new dawn’s frozen light.

Winter has come, but not here where a candle glows at my right elbow and music from a Celtic harp keeps the cold from my heart.

The day has been well-spent. Children called. Books read. Warm soup consumed. Nearly Epiphany, decorations were lovingly stored, well-ordered and safe, ready to be retrieved with delight when Advent rolls around to excite our expectations once more.

Who knows what will be then? More Covid? Greater freedom to go where we want when we want? Will Mom still be with us, then in her 94^th year? Questions abound, all with the same answer, “We’ll see.”

Still, to quote Nathaniel, Can anything good come of this?

It is natural question when you consider the mess of the world, the bitterness of current divisions, a pandemic entering its third year and the unrelenting gale of troubling news that chills the heart if you care enough to let it in.

But I suppose that’s the magic of faith. It gives us just enough patience to wait and see what comes, trusting that whatever comes ... somewhere in the middle of it all ... we’ll see grace of the One we most need.

David L. Miller