I had an early morning appointment. When I returned home, I discovered that our snow removal crew had blown the fresh snow off the patio. However, their wand-type snow blowers had not been able to remove the fresh white snow that my feet had pressed into the top of the now solidly frozen original layer. There were my footprints — clear evidence of my walk from the back door to the garage.

I'm old. One of the things that older people do is to think about and tell stories about their lives. As I thought about the footsteps on my path to the garage, I began remembering the many places where I had left my footsteps and the people with whom I had interacted in those places — literally all over the world. As I did so, I felt a deep gratitude towards those places and those people. I have been richly blessed by the opportunities that I have had to live out my call to ministry and to learn about our world and its people — God's people.

I experienced that call when I was about 16. After discussing this with my minister, I had a conversation with the session of our congregation. The session recommended me to presbytery for certification as a candidate for the ministry. Next, I met with the Students and Colleges Committee of the presbytery. They discerned that my call was indeed a gospel call and recommended me to the presbytery.

During the conversation with the committee, one of the topics was predestination.

Ephesians 1:5 – [God] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. (NIV)

1 Corinthians 13:12 – For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. (NKJV)

After the committee had made its decision, a retired minister took me aside and said something like the following. "About predestination — I'd like you to know that we never know where we are going in response to God's call. It's like coming to an open door and deciding to go through it, and doing the same through successive doors. Then, when we get to a certain point and look back, we finally have a sense of what our life was predestined to be and will continue to be." That has been my experience. That has been the path that my feet have walked, and the footsteps that I have left behind bear witness to that walk.

As you read this, may you find here, and in what you are experiencing in your daily life, your call to deepened commitment, wise discernment, courage to walk through whatever doors open to you, and a life of faithful service.

Prayer: Loving God, we thank You that You have Your way of calling people to serve You as ministers and as faithful church members. Help us to find and follow Your call on our lives. Amen.

It's morning, Jesus. It's morning, and here's that light and sound all over again. Where am I running? You know these things I can't understand. It's not that I need to have you tell me. What counts most is just that somebody knows, and it's you. That helps a lot. So I'll follow along, okay? But lead, Lord. Now I've got to run. Are you running with me, Jesus?

I lived in Knox College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for six years between 1956 and 1961 — three years in undergrad at the University of Toronto and three years studying at Knox College. I had not had much of an intentional prayer life before then, so I welcomed the opportunity to participate in the daily chapel services mid-morning, Monday to Thursday, and a residence prayer group involving 6-7 of the residents (theologues and students in other faculties) which met Monday to Thursday for a half-hour of prayer at 10 p.m. I seldom missed either opportunity. In the evening prayer group, we just prayed about our lives and for each other and for whatever happened to be going on in the world around us at the time.

During the early 1960s, I was sitting in a classroom at Knox College listening to Dr. David Hay lecture on prayer. Dr. Hay usually stuck pretty close to his notes. This one day, however, he looked up from the lectern and mused out loud, "I wonder what would happen if we prayed with our eyes open."

• Running with Jesus
• Sharing our lives with others in a supportive environment, in which we are learning from others how to pray
• Praying with our eyes open

Do you see where this is going?

Prayer is about life — about life lived in the presence of God. We may stop or retreat for intensive "seasons" of prayer — daily, more frequently, or perhaps occasionally — but every moment of our living is "prayer time".

Or it can be! We can invite Jesus to run with us wherever we go and whatever we do, or better yet, we can run with Jesus. "Am I running with You, Jesus?"

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – Always be joyful and never stop praying. Whatever happens, keep thanking God because of Jesus Christ. This is what God wants you to do. (CEV)

Prayer: We're praying on the run, today (maybe every day), God. And we are praying every moment. We are living every moment conscious of Your presence with us. Thank You that we can do that. Amen.

Proverbs 29:18a – Where there is no vision, the people perish. (KJV)

One of the effects of the pandemic that we regret the most is that many church sanctuaries have been closed. It is important to lament the loss of what has been. It is important to lament the loss of people who have died as a result of COVID-19; the loss of economic security for many; the incredible toll taken on healthcare providers and persons who provide other essential services. It is important to grieve — and grief is experienced as longing, sadness, and anger.

However, it is also important to realize that the doors of a church building being closed does not mean that the church is closed. Church is always open, in the sense that wherever we are in the world, we take the church with us. We can learn from this pandemic experience that while gathering in a place of worship is important, there are many other ways of being church outside the walls of a church building — many other ways of worshipping together and of serving the community.

Several decades ago, an inner-city church realized that some of its older members were having great difficulty making their way to the church building for worship on Sundays. So, they figured out a way of connecting the sound system in the sanctuary to the telephone system, and did some other technical things to make it possible for the Sunday worship to be broadcast to people who wanted to participate in worship via their telephones. The church provided special speakers in those folks' homes so that they did not have to hold a receiver up to their ear for an hour. This was long before there were telephones with a speaker phone function. The telephone worshippers were often mentioned (sometimes by name) in the worship services.

During this pandemic, many congregations have learned how to broadcast their worship services, both audio and video, via one of the Internet platforms, and have discovered that there are ways to do so which build up the community of faith and care just as effectively as through the use of their church buildings. The congregation to which I belong has welcomed persons attending worship who have not been able to attend worship in person for several years — and has had visitors from far away as well. Two of those "visiting" families, one from 250 km distance and the other from 3000 km away, have become regular participants in our congregation's life and work. Of course, some of our local members do not have Internet access or have been unable (or unwilling) to join us online. We have provided them with the text of the service — by postal mail if they do not have email. One of those folks shared with me that, when they receive the service material, they read the readings and message, pray the prayers, and sing the songs.

Many things have been learned as a result of the pandemic experience. I hope that that learning will continue to inform congregations about how they can grow in the capacity to use tools that are readily available to be the church in whatever way that is possible. If our hearts and minds are open, we can experience a wider vision of how God wants us to be in the world as a result of what we have learned from being the church during the pandemic.

Prayer: Loving God, we struggle to make sense out of what we are going through as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Help us to shake off our tendency to want things to be the way that they used to be, and instead, to listen, to watch for, and to embrace the vision that You have for us as individuals and for the communities of faith and care in which we participate. Amen.

It was a bitterly cold Christmas Day morning 50 years ago. The plan was to load up our re-purposed delivery (camper) van with our two little ones and all the gear they required, along with Christmas gifts, and head out on the three-hour drive to my parents' home to have a late breakfast with them and spend a few days of family time together.

I went out to start the van about fifteen minutes before our 6 a.m. planned departure time so that it could warm up for us. I turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. I tried again. And again. Nothing. The battery was dead.

What to do? We had another vehicle, but it was too small for everything we were taking, was not gassed up, and had a heater that produced very little heat. I was able to manoeuvre the car close enough to the van that my jumper cables just reached. Alas! In my anxiety, I hooked things up incorrectly and the dead battery was now a "cooked" battery.

What to do? When I had gassed up the van the day before, I'd had a pleasant visit with the local gas station owner. I knew him well because he not only looked after our vehicles, but also was very active in the parents' group that supported Scouting in our suburban community. The church in which I ministered was the sponsor and host of the Cub, Scout, and Venturer groups, and I was their chaplain. So, I knew what his plan was for Christmas Day morning, and he knew our plan. I also knew where he lived — just a few doors down the street from our church building. So, I drove over to his house (yes, he was already up and I knew that he would be), knocked on his door, and explained my predicament to him.

His response was instinctive and immediate. He would go right away to the service station and connect the quick charger to the appropriate battery. Then, back at home, he would be with his family for their gift opening and some breakfast. By that time, the battery would be operational, and he would bring it to our house and install it. This he did. Two-plus hours late, but assured of a reliable vehicle, we were on our way to my parents' home, arriving in time for brunch.

I share this story because it seems to me that it illustrates a couple of themes that are inherent in the story of Jesus' birth.

The first theme is the obvious one. This man offered our family a gift of extreme hospitality. I knew to the core of my being how Joseph and Mary must have felt when they finally found a place in Bethlehem where they could rest and where their baby could be born.

The subtler theme, it seems to me, is connected with the core meaning of Jesus' birth. In God's own way and in God's good time, God reaches out to us in love. That has the potential to create community in which people are enabled to reach out with care and love to their neighbours and to the wider world. When someone "knocks on your door", are you ready to respond with love and care? That's getting into the Christmas spirit.

Prayer: Loving God, we marvel that You reach out to us with love and care. We commit to doing our best to relate to other people in the way that You relate to us. Amen.

In December 2017, as I watched the children and young adults play their various roles in the tableaux written by one of our church members, I felt a strong connection with the narrative. I knew many of the "actors" and their families — the braying and baa-ing little children who were donkeys and sheep, the three tall young men who were the magi, the teenager who was Mary, accompanied by a teenaged Joseph. Then there were the narrators, who occasionally stumbled over less-familiar words but who were obviously pouring their hearts and souls into the fulfillment of their responsibility. At least three continents and seven or eight countries were represented among the participants.

It was not important whether the children got the details of the biblical narrative "right". Into the realm of trivia faded the problem I have, as a science-informed, 21st-century Christian, with whether the events actually occurred the way they were being presented.

My imagination was freed up to experience the reality that Jesus was very near for the enactors of the story. In a very real way, Jesus had come alongside each person present in the sanctuary — including me.

And that is trustworthy. That is real. That we can depend on. That we can live out in our daily lives as well as during pageants and plays at Christmas.

John 1:1,14 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (NIV)

Prayer: Loving God, You have come near to us in order that we might come near to You. We pray that that may be our experience in sanctuary and Sunday church school and in the world where we live out our lives on a daily basis. Amen.

She was at the lowest point that I had ever seen. It was mid-winter, and her Seasonal Affective Disorder (SADS) was visiting the full force of its power on her. At first, I did not know how to help her to fight her way through the deeply felt depression. However, after some reflection, I said, "When I get to that place, the only thing that brings me through is the knowledge that God loves me no matter what." She replied, "Unfortunately, I don't believe in God."

As we sat there in silence for a few minutes until the therapy hour came to an end, something happened. The cloud hanging over her had begun to lift. She still didn't believe in God, and she was still depressed, but something about my assertion (perhaps it was that she knew that I understood the depths of her despair) and the way that I shared it allowed her to trust that she could and would emerge from the blackness, or at least could cope with it. Notice that I didn't tell her that she would get better if she believed in God — or that God was able to heal her. I simply witnessed to her experience and to my experience.

I remember someone who would say, as autumn faded into early winter, "See you in the spring," and true to their word, they would go into hibernation for three or four months and be back at church in the spring. This person had learned how to live with their SADS.

Then, there are the many people in the psychiatric hospital where I was chaplain, whose depression was devastating for them and for their families. Sometimes, medication and/or electric shock therapy (ECT), with psychotherapy and/or occupational therapy, helped them to overcome or live with their depression. Sometimes, it didn't. A mystery — a painful mystery. Perhaps, in time, an answer will be found.

There are many kinds of depression. There is a continuum between grief and existential sadness or situation-related despair at one end of the spectrum, with SADS in the middle, and psychotic depression and bipolar affective disorder at the other end.

At the extreme end and in the middle, medication (sometimes ECT) and professional therapy is essential. Our brain biology is not functioning the way that God intends it to function, and we need to use these God-given ways of trying to facilitate healing.

When someone is dealing with grief, existential sadness, or even situation-related despair, having someone come alongside them so that they know they are not alone may be all they need. It is not, of course, helpful, to tell a depressed person to "cheer up". They simply need to know that we are there, that we have some understanding of their pain, and that we care.

Whatever way healing occurs, we can be certain that God is there, acknowledged or not, in the healing process.

Scripture Prayer: Loving God, I always stay close to You, and You hold me by the hand. You guide me with Your instruction and at the end You will receive me with honour. What else do I have in heaven but You? Since I have You, what else could I want on earth? My mind and my body may grow weak, but You are my strength; You are all I ever need. Amen. (Psalm 73:23-26 GNT – adapted)

I didn't have any choice, this summer. Our fence had to be repaired and re-stained. The repairs went fine. It was a bit of a challenge, but my knowledge and skills were able to meet the challenge, and when I had finished, I stepped back with satisfaction that the fence was good for another ten to fifteen years. My satisfaction, however, did not rest in the mindless task of applying stain to something like a hundred linear feet of fencing. The only challenge in that part of the project was to get more stain on the fence than on myself!

As I was applying the stain, however, my mind had lots of time to roam — and one of the memories that came flooding back was the experience of re-building the fence over twenty years before. Five families got together to re-do the fencing around and between our homes. One of the men was an engineer and another was a carpenter, so they calculated how much lumber and stain we would need, ordered the materials, and figured out how much it would cost each family. The engineer and carpenter helped the rest of us locate where the posts needed to be, and once they were set and the top and bottom rails were in place, we agreed on a Saturday during which we would all pitch in and nail on the uprights. At the end of that day, all of the fencing was up, and relationships among the five families had deepened. (We all did our own staining as we had time.)

In this project, everyone used their God-given abilities for the greater good. The "parts" each fulfilled their own functions so that project could get done efficiently and effectively. And we had fun working together. That's the way God wants it to be in communities of faith. We can take that principle and apply it to neighbourhoods and to wider communities of people as well. I think that God probably smiles a "wide smile" when that happens.

Prayer: Loving God, thank You that we are each a unique creation with our part to play in working for the common good. Give us opportunities to do that in the Christian community and in the wider world. Amen.