A Beautiful Day

This was made to be the perfect spring day. It was so nice outside today.

You can step outside, maybe go for a walk at a safe distance from everyone.
You can try to forget for a brief period of time what is going on in the world.

 There must have been beautiful days during both world wars. There are beautiful days in the midst of great sorrow or pain.

 I remember once speaking with Jessie Begbie (best Sutherland Church elder ever) about beautiful days in the midst of sorrow. I had been learning at seminary about a hard to grasp attribute of God. The attribute, which was considered by theologians to be a positive virtue, was that of God’s indifference.
I had been struggling with how indifference could be seen as a positive attribute.
Mostly, I took it to mean that when we are freaking out, God is not freaking out - like a parent doesn’t scream in anguish every time their toddler screams in frustration.

Jessie taught me more than that. She told me about one of the things that was tough for her to grasp when her husband Bruce died suddenly. She said that her whole world had come apart, but when she looked up at Grouse Mountain it was exactly like it had been before, nothing had changed. This was, at first, offensive to her.

She said, “That’s the indifference of God. I was in the worst pain I ever felt and I knew that God was with me, but I also learned that God was constant.”

 It was a beautiful day today.

As I was riding back from the forest I rode past Lynn Valley Care Centre. Across Lynn Valley Road from the place where COVID has claimed 8 lives (and 36 patients positive and 18 staff positive) a group of kids (safely distanced from one another) were standing with handmade big paper hearts and signs and decorated banners. They were just standing and waving and yelling and smiling for the people in the Care Centre.

 It was a beautiful day today.