I am thankful for many things, chief among them 

 this week that I don’t live in Buffalo, NY. A friend who lives there posted pictures on Facebook yesterday of their current igloo, I mean house, with drifted snow covering almost every window on the lower level. And they have the potential for another seven feet of snow in the coming days. That’s a long way from the weather here, even with the bitter cold that set in this week.

Yesterday brought one of my least favorite activities of the year. With the mercury falling, I had to bring in all my potted plants on the front porch. I’m sure some of them are cold hardy, but I’m never sure which ones, so I bring them all in. It makes the porch look sad and lonely with only the two palms left to guard the front door (they survived last winter!). I thought about covering my plants, but that might not have have kept them warm enough. Under the porch roof I wasn’t worried about frost, per se, but the freezing temps are enough to do some serious damage.

Ironically, I had just noticed a couple of plants that had recently decided to bloom. One is a tropical plant that has never bloomed before, and just recently sprouted these deep red tendrils out the top, that may not be done popping yet. I wonder if they will continue to bloom in the garage. Another flower, which hasn’t bloomed since the spring had a lone red flower standing watch over the rest of the pot that I thought was dormant long ago. How strange it is to live in a climate where we can go from blooms to freezing – whether that’s typical or not.

My all time favorite prayer in our prayer book is found in the service of Compline (p. 134). The prayer asks God to care for, “those who sleep, tend the sick, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted…” And then the prayer includes something that always catches me up short: “shield the joyous”. All of those former petitions make perfect sense, and they roll through the mind as we pray them quite naturally. But for me, shielding the joyous is something I have to think about. What does that mean?

What I’ve come to understand is that it is a prayer of mercy for those who are in a joyous place in life. It is a prayer of care for those who are blooming, who don’t need or want a frosty chill to come through and take away their joyous place in life. Of course, we know that life isn’t always joyous, and things will often assault us and can even pile on like deep drifts of snow. How beautiful to pray and hope, though, that God might shield us in our moments of joy and blooming.

Many of you may know a young woman in our community who has been on the lips and in the prayers of many, Hollis Younger. I have not met Hollis, but one day not long ago I got a text from a member of the parish who asked me to pray for her. Not long after, Facebook was full of posts calling for prayers for Hollis and offering support. Still in her early thirties, Hollis is a cancer survivor who just had a one-two punch of health crises, including a return of her cancer. Long story short, all those prayers in recent days have been for a young mother who has been fighting for her life. Hollis’ is the quintessential heartbreaking story we hear too often of a young, vibrant person, full of life and joy, who finds themself in a fight for their life.

I understand the prayer a little bit better in light of stories like Hollis’. Shield the joyous, Lord, for none of us want our joy to be taken away, nor from our loved ones. We want to see those blooms, those flashes of brilliant life for as long as we can, and I do pray that God will help such realities last as long as possible. …even though we know they can’t last forever. If not this week, sometime in the next month I would have had to put away my plants and brace for winter. Seasons come and seasons go, as we are reminded in Ecclesiastes. There is a time for everything, and we cannot choose the whens or whys. But we can rejoice for God’s presence and God’s care through all of it.

Please pray for Hollis and her family, and for all those we know in need of God’s care and grace; there is a prayer list in the email that accompanies this rambling full of folks who can use our prayers. And don’t stop with those folks. Remember those in the midst of blooming too. We can give thanks in those joyful moments for what we have, and yes, we can ask God to shield us and those we love, if only for another day.

Tom

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work or watch or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.