Yellow!

It’s evening. The breeze sweeps across my face, steadily but assuredly. It whispers calmness and a sense of peace. The birds fly above the houses, not a worry on their visage. They look well-fed. They fly to and fro, flapping their wings in second’s gaps as if communicating with their maker. They don’t know about the two visitors in the world called ‘Corona’. One a virus, the other, a beautiful baby born to a couple in India.

The village is quiet. The roads are nearly empty. Everyone is at home.

A woman sits outside her homestead, her hands, busy, peeling what seems like potatoes or maybe pumpkins. She is planning early for their evening meal. The man of the house must be happy. He will come home to a hot meal, just in time to replenish his energy from a hard day’s work. He will sleep smiling. He will be happy he married her.

The four hills in the distance continue to sleep. They are enjoying their natural form of rest.  One looks like a well-watered forest as if the rain resides there. They are well clothed.

The trees sway. Some are green, as they should be here. One has yellow flowers. It is beautiful. I am sure one of my friends back home would love it. We call her ‘yellow yellow’. She would pluck one, put it on her hair and take a selfie. She would giggle. She would put it up on her WhatsApp status that night.

In the distance, is the sound of a heavy engine. It disturbs the calmness that has ensued since morning. The driver must be extremely tired; the sun has not been gracious to him today. He wants to go home, to his children and a hot bath. He eagerly awaits to clock out. He smiles broadly.

The other sting in the air is that of hot bread. I don’t like hot bread. Customers flock out of the mall, it’s time to shut the place. I am sure one of them carries some of it in their bags, the hot bread. They will walk as fast as their feet can carry them so that they can taste the hot bread before it gets cold. They will close their eyes at the first bite. It will make their hearts glad.

Seated at the balcony of a properly ‘finished’ house, is a young man. His back against the wall and feet up on a footstool. In his hands, a book. This is a beautiful site. It is mesmerizing. He will sleep happy. He will have accomplished the day’s huddle, a chapter a day. He will tick it off his list and feel accomplished.

As all is still up here, with the birds and trees, may it be still in our hearts. A stillness that comes from God, one that produces peace and a gentleness that is evident to all.

After COVID-19, life must go on. When that time comes, we will put down our masks, forget about sanitizing, embrace as we used to and continue to put our trust in God!

Stay home! Stay safe!

Matthew 6:25-34 New International Version (NIV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Lilyann 🙂