The Gift Of Covid-19
We find ourselves in week two of a pandemic requiring us to social distance from each other and staying at home. By now we’ve all had our share of good and bad days, adjustments to schedules, homeschooling kids, working from home and a host of other seeming inconveniences.
I’ve been taking more walks with my dogs than usual and I’ve noticed something. I see people walking with their kids, playing games outside, bike riding, and other activities. I don’t remember seeing this many people and kids outside for a very long time. When I was growing up we played outside for hours on end making up games, playing hopscotch and double-dutch; practicing cartwheels in the grass…beautiful memories of times gone by.
With inventions like the Internet and our current social media culture we seem to have become a society hooked on the screen as we play on the computer, our phones or on video games instead of interacting with actual people. I miss the days of board games playing spoons or cards until all hours of the night.
To be safe and keep others safe families have been forced to return to a slower pace of life. Forced to slow down and talk to our kids, relax and play together, just be together again, life and family revolving around home and each other as we focus on the important things. Is this such a terrible thing?
As I’ve pondered it all I’ve realized we haven’t had so much “taken” from us as “given” to us. I believe we have been given a gift. A gift to relish time, a divine pause of sorts.The gift to selah. Selah means to stop or pause and reflect on something: to ponder. A gift to step back and realize what we do have…our families and each other.
People are willing to shop for others who can’t go for themselves. People reaching out, making a way, leaving signs in their windows to encourage others in ways we have maybe been too busy to think about. Humanity caring and looking out for one another again. What a beautiful thing to see.
Next week is Easter and for the first time I can remember churches all across the globe will not be meeting together to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. While I will miss that I won’t be missing Easter…it will just look different and different is ok. Change can be hard but it can prove to be just what we needed. I have chosen to see this as a gift I get to unwrap and discover. I like gifts.
It’s all too easy to look at the negative in any situation. I’ve chosen to look at the positive in this quarantine. I feel my life has slowed down which is good. I have had more time to sit and read and pray especially for our worn out leaders and physicians who are on the front lines of this, catch up on my emails, watch a good movie and just be. We can become human doings instead of human beings if we don’t find the balance we need amidst the chaos…another gift to consider.
As we tune into our churches this weekend to watch a service and take the time to reflect on Jesus death and resurrection I pray we also take time to reflect on the gifts we can find scattered throughout this pandemic. The gifts of family, of the slower moments we have while we have them: the gift of friends who have helped us on the bad days and the gift of reflection itself. Hopefully we learn to savor these gifts and include them in our lives long after this is all over. These gifts can be explored over and over again. #selah