This Week at Trinity, Beamsville
Friday, November 19, 2021
Dear Friends,
This week’s writing won’t come easily, I don’t think. Then again, for here and for the service text, it might just pour forth as my fingers release all kinds of pent-up thoughts and emotions. It’s been a very, very long week for our family. I know some of yours would say the same.
In the Weaver-Orosz circle of care, it’s been a nightmarish time of waiting. Some of you know that Sunday evening, I took a call from my brother, in the ER at a Toronto hospital, to say that their youngest daughter, our 19-year-old niece, was in a horrible accident. Simply out for supper on a quiet night, in a crosswalk not far from her apartment, Meagan was struck by a car and suffered life-threatening injuries. Kirk told me what little they knew then, hung up to accompany Meagan to a brain trauma ICU, and said he’d be in touch again soon. In shock, Michael and I trudged next door to my parents, and the intense waiting and praying began.
Since then, I’m beyond grateful to say, Meagan has survived the most delicate surgery and continues to take significant steps in coming back to us all. There is still a long, hard road of recovery with many unknowns, but I’m holding tight to my wonderful friend’s description of Meagan as “a righteously tough nut”. Absolutely she is, and then some. She is bound by a quiet but deep bravery, surrounded by exquisite medical care, and held in a wide, multi-denominational community of compassionate love.
If ever there was a week when my faith was called upon, this was it. If ever there was a week that the planned sermon was tested against real-life stresses and strains, this was it. Pressing into a Sunday set to mark “Reign of Christ”, more than ever I’ve been rather uninterested in any notions or dangerous imagery of triumphalist crowns and victorious cross-filled flags. All I wanted, all I still want, is for the gentle comfort of Jesus; to imagine his hands cradling Meagan’s as she comes back to life and all that it will be for her now. My intense focus is on the seemingly small acts that profess and live out great love, in and through this complex, fragile, precious gift of life. My longing for a time-machine, with clear, simple answers to bypass suffering, has not come to be. I am, however, hourly reminded and reassured that, whatever comes, whatever changes in a heartbeat, the beautiful kin-dom of God’s beloveds can bring a mighty peace by love. Wave the banners of that great victory, I pray. Wave the prayer-filled banners of hope, to assure us all we are never, ever alone.
With love to you all,
Heather
“Blessed are you brave one… You, who do small acts of great love.”
(Kate Bowler, ‘A Blessing for the Brave’)