A Long December

The smell of hospitals in winter

And the feeling that it’s all a lot of oysters, but no pearls

All at once you look across a crowded room

To see the way that light attaches to a girl

Counting Crows, “A Long December”

Pandemic surges, winter blues, employment stress, family strain, Bob & Betty. I don’t know how many empty oysters are laying around you in this season, but I imagine there are a few. It is easy to think there are no pearls to be found.

In church world, we’ve just began the season of Epiphany on January 6. In the above song, the pearl is the appearance of the beauty and hope of love in the form of a woman across a crowded room. In the season of Epiphany, the pearl is the appearance of Christ in our world and lives, the Light shining hope and love in all the dark places.

When it feels like a long December, may we see the way the Light attaches to our world. God is here, right in the mess. There are pearls to be seen and treasured all around us.