TGIF
This week, Cindy and I are in Virginia. We flew into the DC airport on Tuesday for a week to visit our daughter Shelli and her family who lives in a DC suburb of McLean VA. Our son Stevie and his family live less than 10 miles from Shelli, but we cannot go to see them because they live in the city of DC, and we cannot enter DC because we would be required to first quarantine for 2 weeks. Since we will only be here for one week, that cannot be accomplished. We will get to see Stevie and his family one day as they are coming out to visit us this weekend. They can travel outside the city since they live here, but we cannot travel into the city. I only point this out to mention the continued difficulty we all continue to have in life right now with restrictions placed upon us, yet those restrictions differ across the country depending on the rate of COVID infections at any particular time and the reaction of local leaders in individual states and cities. Life can certainly be confusing and disappointing these days due to all the continuing uncertainty in our lives.
I would also note that when traveling, I cross paths with quite a few people in airports, on airplanes, and in the cities as we get out and about. Also, in Gainesville I still get out a bit and tend to interact with a number of people, strangers and friends alike. What I have noticed since COVID began is an almost universal niceness of the people I come in contact with everywhere. Almost everyone is civil and kind, and holds doors and says please and thank you to others. I really don’t notice anything in the real world that I experience that looks like what we see and is reported in the media indicating no one is getting along.
Thank goodness all Americans are not required to show a large red “R” or blue “D” on our foreheads to represent who we voted for. Do you think we would look at people differently if we knew whether they voted “like us” or “for the other guy”?
My favorite Broadway play of all time is Les Misérables. It is the story of the difficult life of a released prisoner in French society early in the 19th century. One of the last lines of all the beautiful music in this play is “To love another person is to see the face of God”. I would ask you if you routinely see the face of God when you see someone else? It is easy to see the face of God when I look at one of my children or their spouse, and especially when I look at any of my 4 beautiful granddaughters!! But can I say I see that in everyone around me? Probably not!
As COVID continues to negatively impact our lives by restricting the things we can do and seeing the people we want to see, we need to make sure we keep hope alive in us. We need to understand that each day we have on earth is a precious gift from God. We should not waste any of these days, and we should not accept that there is nothing we can do to make a difference. We should ask God each day what can I do today to show my love for you, and to make the world a little better place today? Live one day at a time, and make it count for God!!
Psalm 118:24 – This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Even Covenant folks who are not yet comfortable attending church can call other church members, family, and friends to encourage them that day, you can continue finding a way to send Pine Grove supplies to church for us to deliver to the needs at Pine Grove, or do whatever God plants in your heart to help someone else in need each day. At the end of each day, we should be able to pray to God and thank Him for where He led us that day!!!
Proverbs 16:3 – Commit your works to the Lord, And your plans will be established.
We also need to remember to love everyone we come into contact with, we need to see Jesus in them!! That may not be our easiest task but it is what God asks of us.
Luke 6:35-36 – But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
If God has created me in His image, so he has created others as well. It is not my role to judge, but to love and see God in them. I need to forgive them just as God has forgiven me!!!
Genesis 1:27 – So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
My personal joy every day this week is to assist 2 of my granddaughters in their virtual school, and to hear my 5 year old granddaughter say she loves “Pop school”. I am so looking forward to this Sunday when I will be truly blessed to see our other 2 granddaughters, even if only for a short time. Rather than being upset that I cannot be with them more on this trip, I feel blessed that I will get to see them!!!
May God bless your week as much as He has blessed mine this week! May He continue to bless Covenant Church!