The snow was a surprise. It does get cold in South Texas, but snow is a Christmas miracle. I brought my potted plants indoors. They line the kitchen counter like colorful dancers in a parade.
I have spent many happy hours nourishing, watering and pruning my plants. Leaving them out in the snow was not an option. Shelter was needed; I am delighted to have my leafy friends indoors. They will go outside again when temperatures rise to 40+F. The surprise snow storm got me thinking about what it means to offer shelter. Two other ways of offering shelter are: Prayer and Presence.
Soren Kierkegaard wrote "Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays." Unlike botany, there is no hard science for the eternal soul. Concrete results of prayer do happen, but they are filtered through the human heart. Miracles happen constantly, but we have to have eyes to see or we may attribute divine intervention to chance. The best praying I have ever done has been for people that I found difficult. This is a daunting practice because it pushes me to examine my own shortcomings and sense of self. Covering people in prayer is a second and powerful prayer. When my son was seriously ill, a whole church of people I never met prayed for his healing. I feel that all that love and kindness boosted my family during a trying time. There were moments that I felt lifted up for no tangible reason.
Finally presence is shelter. Visiting the ill, comforting the grieving, giving a kind word, consoling the saddened and sheltering the homeless. I have been the recipient of countless acts of presence. Presence received encourages presence paid forward.
The flowers splash color and joy around my kitchen. If shelter makes a plant happy, imagine the miracles we can create in each other's lives. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote: "Friendship is a sheltering tree." The world can be bitterly cold and deeply dark. This Christmas may we find ways to be sheltering trees.
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