February’s changing temperatures and scriptural references to both weather and prayer inspire today’s reflection, which considers the disabled and their place in a new season of frosts and thaws.
Thanks to Hippo Px for the image : )
The Hebrew prophet Isaiah’s words feel apt for February – :
“the snow come[s] down from the heavens…”
Sub-zero temperatures can persist through this month, adding further inconvenience to currently restricted lives. For many, the sense of paralysis caused by the pandemic has been heightened by a period of frozen winter stasis.
Some have had jabs and keenly await the easing of restrictions and more freedom. Others might be more hesitant about any post-lockdown ‘big thaw’. We remember in particular those living with a disability - for whom freedom and movement are not simple, pandemic or no.
Data suggests that ‘nearly six out of every 10 people who died with coronavirus in England last year were disabled*’. This can send a chill down our spines and trigger, again, feelings of paralysis. It might then make us ‘babble’ furiously, like melting streamwaters, on social media.
But …. the gospel writer Matthew recounts Jesus’ teaching on a better kind of response:
“do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them”
Instead of babbling, we are commanded first to pray and take spiritual inspiration. Let us do so in solidarity with all affected by physical or learning disability; that the thaw which follows these frozen times may be a cultural thawing to water the earth with justice and compassion:
“making it yield and give [...] growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating…”
Depending on health and circumstance, inspired action might involve practical works of charity alongside our marginalised brothers and sisters, for example lobbying the government to ensure the needs of disabled people and their families are prioritised.
As the pandemic and seasons evolve, C S Lewis’ words are also apt:
“Good things as well as bad, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are ... a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it the spray will wet you”
After the snow comes the thaw. The earth will be watered. It will yield and give fruit. We must decide whether or not to get wet in Isaiah’s confidence that:
“The Word of the Lord cannot fail”