The word “remember” keeps coming up in my quiet time with the Lord. I think He wants me to remember what He has done in my life before COVID-19 and cling to those reminders to get through this. However, I also think He wants me to remember this season. Years from now, our children and great grandchildren will ask us what was living in quarantine like?
Quarantine was like.....
Waking up some days with the weight of the world so heavy on your chest that you can barely breathe.
Idols being crashed down so that God’s grace and goodness and glory would shine and reign victorious.
Becoming the real MVP if you could find eggs, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, or oddly enough, water flavoring.
High school seniors grieving the loss of “lasts,” funerals being postponed, and exciting trips being cancelled.
Finding new ways to do church and worship and community.
Choosing to surrender to the unknown or fight like hell for what would only become a continuously losing battle.
Discovering gratitude for things you had never truly appreciated before.
Neighbors coming together to support and care for one another.
New urgent prayer requests coming in every single moment. Death. Loss. Grief. Pain.
Clinging to whatever piece of joy was in the world (even if it meant that Joe Exotic was our hero for a short while).
Recognizing that less really is more.
Parents having to overnight become an expert chef, homeschool teacher, cruise activity director, and counselor for your children.
Honestly...a lot of screen time 🤷🏻♀️
Giving our kids some horrible at-home haircuts.
Social media becoming the biggest gift and greatest curse simultaneously.
Looking forwards to better days ahead.
Scheduling zoom calls for birthdays, LifeGroups, and basically anytime you wanted any social interaction.
Extra opportunities for solitude, fasting, prayer, and study. It was a yearning for God that we had never seen before.
Businesses closing, government systems crumbling, and financial hardship all around.
An emptying of the calendar. An opportunity to reprioritize what mattered.
A choice between gaining weight or working harder than you ever have to lose it.
Standing on a taped line at the grocery store surrounded by people in homemade masks and gloves.
Experiencing a peace that surpassed our understanding.
Watching our toddlers fall apart because they don’t understand why they can’t play with their friends. It was watching our elementary students crave the routine of school. It was seeing teens struggling with anxiety and depression. The parents struggled.
An appreciation for the little things.
Supporting local becoming a necessity and a joy to watch.
Helpers coming out of the woodworks to support the heroes during this time. (Thank you essential workers, healthcare professionals, first responders, transit, and everyone else who worked tirelessly to see this through).
When we are on the other side of COVID-19, we will remember that it was full of hard moments of immense suffering. We will remember it was different in a way no one had experienced before. We will remember that it was a revival and restoration of what mattered in our world. God, we pray that as this season comes and goes that we would remember the lessons learned. We would fill ourselves with gratitude for the blessings that abound. And that we will fall to our knees in humble surrender knowing that everything in life is unknown except the eternal promise found in You and You alone.
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