The envelope is black. The color is ominous. The contents seem foreboding. We assume that whatever is inside can’t be good. After all, this is the color of funerals and all things sad. Slowly, we rip open the envelope and expose the message. Certainly, it must be unthinkable. After all, what news could be contained in such a dark, haunting method of disclosure?
And then we read the contents. It’s a love letter. The words are kind and encouraging. The message is for our benefit. The purpose is kindness, peace, wholeness and all things Shalom. And how could that be? How could something that seemed so dark be the vehicle for something that is loving and enabling?
In our darkest hours, we seem to naturally assume that the message is likewise unpleasant. We fear the content. Our imagination is more than capable of creating the creatures that haunt us.
But what if the looming threat contained a message that was wonderful? That is often the case. I have a friend and colleague. In the early days of March at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she contracted the virus. She got really sick. Her first test took a week to decipher. It came back negative. She suffered at home until the first test was declared in error and she was told to retest. The next series of tests came out positive and she remained sick, getting sicker. We wondered at her prognosis, feared the worst and hoped for the best.
Over the course of the next several weeks, she regained strength, and the virus lost it’s hold on her body. She began to beat back the threat of a terminal infection. Slowly her fever subsided and her senses of smell and taste returned. She was blessed with the type of medical attention that is only available to those of us lucky enough to live in resource-rich jurisdictions.
But, the concern with the COVID-19 virus is the long-term impact of the illness. They checked her blood. It was negative for the virus. The problem came when they looked for myocardial infarction. That is a swelling of the heart and it could be life-threatening. When they took a good, hard look at the images of her heart, they discovered an emergency. Her arteries were stuffed with plaque, and the blood was not flowing into the ventricles. It had nothing to do with her COVID infection. It was hereditary, the thing that had killed her dad. In short, she was a candidate for an immediate heart attack.
Within weeks, she was in the hospital. The doctor scheduled an emergency surgery. The only possible alternative was a triple bypass. I called her a couple days before the surgery to encourage her and to pray with her. Again, we were all hoping for the best and wondering why someone who had just survived COVID would be cursed with the black envelope of open-heart surgery. I asked if she was disappointed, frustrated or concerned.
Her response took me aback, “No. I am grateful for my journey. COVID just saved my life.”
The COVID diagnosis was the black envelope. The love letter was the discovery that she had a very bright future, and that she had a reason to be on this earth, and with a little cardiac re-plumbing, she would be good to help lots of other people. There would be lots of work to do. But her black envelope of COVID contained a letter that she was loved, and there was a brilliant plan for her life. Hers is the ultimate example of love letters in black envelopes.
We are coming up on nearly a year of pandemic lock-down. It has been something that seems dark and ominous. Staying in and hunkering down wasn’t pleasant when we were told it was fourteen days. It has now been months, and there is no end in sight.
One approach would be to see the past months as the ultimate black envelope. What good could come from the pandemic? And what of the unintended consequences? When the annuals of recent history are written, was this a time when our family, friends and co-workers have become the ultimate threats, and could actually infect us with a disease that could potentially kill us? Who do we turn to for security? Who can we trust?
Or what if we asked a different question? What if all of this could be interpreted as something good? What if a love letter came from opening a black envelope? What if the ominous, frightful situation was written for our benefit?
Personally, our story is not as scary as was our friend’s. She is fine. And we are fine. Actually, we are better than fine. And that’s the point of our thoughts today.
Before COVID, Dana and I were travelling like crazy people. In any given year, she and I would log between 450,000 and 500,000 air miles between the two of us. But on March 15th of 2020, that lifestyle all came to an end. No more TSA Security Lines, or Red Carpet Clubs or red-eye flights. We flew United Airlines home to wait for the COVID-19 “Shelter at Home” regulations to run their course. We were told it would be a couple of weeks. We bought toilet paper and tuna fish. We learned Zoom calls and tele-health. It was going to be manageable.
In that course of non-activity, we drove to Evergreen to check in on my folks. We would take dinner and help with chores. It was planned as a visit twice a week, for fourteen days. That is a total of four times, for people who do quick math. I could find four great recipes to make. Who couldn’t? Martha Stewart did that the week before she went to jail. How hard could it be to find four main dishes, a couple of sides and a salad? And then we would go back to the airport, board our flights and carry on. The black envelope was only a shade of gray at that point.
Eight and a half months later, we have been visiting Evergreen with dinner. Twice a week. And never the same meal twice. We have been cooking healthy, which means no red meat, no pork and no venison. We have visited continents and countries by virtue of their cuisine. We have visited some of our favorite places to travel, from Hungarian Goulash to Jamaican Jerk Chicken. And our time together has been the miracle of a lifetime.
What came in a black envelope as an lockdown and a change of lifestyle was actually a love letter to our family. We have spent more time together since March 15th than most families spend after the kids go off to college. The family table has been full of food, conversation and celebration. Love abounds. Ideas are exchanged. Blogs are written. Stories galore.
My thought as I guest-write this Blog post for my Dad on the eve of a Christmas holiday in the middle of Hanukkah is that we all have blessings. At the time, a blessing may seem like a black envelope, dreadful to open. We are scared for what might be inside. We shun the contents and avoid breaking the seal. But inside the foreboding cover may just be the gift of a lifetime.
Whether it is health and a second chance as in the case of my colleague, or the incredible gift of time well spent, we can recognize what was scary at first as a love letter for something much greater. Something that was Divinely inspired, Cosmically orchestrated. And intended for Eternity. All of that in it’s purist sense.
So, my gift to you this Holiday season is a simple question. Will you be faithful in looking beyond the envelope and seeking for the letter inside? Will you have the courage to open the black envelope? Will you read a love letter to you and your family, friends and colleagues?
It is there.
It is for you.
Open the envelope. There is a letter inside.
It is for you.
By Dr. W. Douglas Jackson, Project C.U.R.E. President/CEO