Contributed By: Rev. Patricia Ludwig
(Download Reflection)

Rev. Ludwig as served in many churches over a long career in ministry. She has served in the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Churches, USA. She has also served on the Community Missions Board.

So another week of “hunkering down” has come and gone and it looks like we will have more time to do the same in the next few weeks.

Running across a quote that says, in part, “God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance,” has forced me to think about that quite a bit lately.

So what do I have an abundance of these days, when I am (mostly) confined to my home, unlike my husband and my son who have essential jobs they must go to?

I have an abundance of time to thank my husband who works at a store that stays open because it has essential goods that people need.

I thank him for helping those people find things in the store that they need and then he sprays, wipes and sanitizes the areas that people were in.

I have an abundance of beautiful moments, where I see breaking- forth color because the forsythia bushes are starting to reveal their bright yellow blossoms, and the tulips are peeking their heads up through the dark, cold ground, and my crocuses are in a profusion of purple, white and yellow all over our grass.

I have an abundance of peaceful and quiet times, when all I hear is the geese overhead, and birds singing at our bird feeders, and I believe that the Spirit is watching over them just as the Spirit watches over us.

I have an abundance of gratitude that the medical professionals and first responders are putting their life on the line, doing what they love, to find solutions and be comforters and be answers to what we as a world are facing these days, with COCID-19. What would we do without them?

I have an abundance of friends who are checking up on me (since I am in one of the categories that is high risk), through phone calls, texts, e-mail notes, and real live postal mail letters!   I love that last one, because who does not like to get personal mail, instead of all the ads and bills!

I have an abundance of faith in humanity, that together we will get through this, even as it has disrupted our way of  life right now, because this is our world, and our country, and our state, and our neighborhood, and we are a family, together.

“God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance.”

Rev. Patricia Ludwig