Our holidays and the winegrower

For most people and especially young people, holidays are a time of freedom, rest, walking, sports, and a time of relationships. This is less true for older people.

Personally, the 2021 holidays seem problematic to me: the long confinement due to Covid and a major health problem change the perspective of freedom during the holidays. This is how we will have to stay in Belgium, and we cannot think of big trips.

So, where to go and what to do? Rest, it will be said, but I have been at rest for several months! In addition, I lack the energy and initiatives to meet others and/or to explore our country. The confinement has forced me to give up friendly meetings and many contacts are almost broken. Given this situation and for lack of initiatives and new proposals, I would stay at home, in my pleasant apartment.

A coincidence? The biblical text I receive is that of God- winegrower -who prunes the vine. He prunes the useless twigs so that the sap can reach abundantly the branch that will carry the grapes of the harvest. It is therefore the winegrower who will decide which branch will be irrigated and where the bunch of grapes of the harvest will grow. When I report this image on me, I tell myself that I will not have to twist my mind to decide what I will do, also as a couple, during this post-Covid holiday. It will be enough for me to let myself be pruned according to the will of God the Father, a conscientious winegrower, while remaining open to the proposals of His will.

The success of our holiday therefore depends on God, and I release myself from this responsibility. I should not deserve the fruit of my vacation since I receive them. And now we receive a proposal to stay at the coast in August: the studio of one of our sons will be free for several days! A sister-in-law invites us to her home in the Ardennes ...

We also have the opportunity to invite friends, see the couples of our grandchildren, spend a barbecue day with family. We can also receive a friend who has just lost her sister in a brutal way and take time to listen to her and pray with her.

There is also the list of telephone calls to be given, both to the Lord up there, through our ardent prayers and then to our loved ones who are in difficulty.

And we will be surprised to find a "virgin" day in our agenda, a day to live calmly thanking the father winegrower for his benefits. He pruned our vine very short, and the grapes will ripen without our efforts.

Thank you, Lord!

Robert Henckes

Extract from the Journal "Sérénité" of Vie Montante Belgium