I recently went to the grocery store to try and buy some bleach. I was told by the score staff that I was only limited to purchasing two bottles. I really needed six more and thus I had to drive to another store in order to purchase the other bottles.
Besides limiting the number of items one can purchase, we are also seeing the cancellation of public events due to Covid-19: schools are being closed, colleges and universities are transferring their teaching online, public events including elections are being postponed.
This whole experience can feel a bit unnerving, like watching a disaster movie.
Most of us have not gone through these kinds of conditions before. If you talked to a World War II Veteran or someone who lived during this time, you probably would hear stories of planes dropping bombs, running for air raid shelters, and long lines of people waiting for food rations.
Again, for a lot of us, this is the stuff of historical news reels from fifty years ago.
The unthinkable has occurred, a virus has jumped from animal to human transmission. We are now seeing the effects of rapidly increasing new cases regarding this illness.
A lot of people will feel the need to totally isolate, to cocoon, to hunker down on the couch with remote in hand and binge watch on Netflix or other media portals.
We will feel the need for comfort and reassurance and yet the reality is that, no matter how bad conditions may become, life will go on.
You can’t cancel life.
Sure, senior citizens may need to leave their independent living facilities and live with their adult children temporarily in order to prevent being separated due to new institutional policies. Some of us may end up working at home for a while. Others of us may not be traveling as much as we would like.
But the good news id that we will continue to survive.
There will be a time when this critical period will end.
We will still see the flowers of Spring, Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush, Lilacs, Crocuses bloom.
There will still be Holy Week, still Good Friday
And there will be Easter– complete with bunnies and chocolate.
Resurrection will come as surely as there will death to old ways of doing things, seeing reality and understanding the complexities of problems from only a limited view.
All of this feels foreign right now, like watching a historical documentary of a bygone era.
We are being asked to hear new things, think new days and perform different behaviors.
This can be hard and challenging for us as humans.
Yet the promise of new life continues, of a better day, of a better beginning, of a better and more fulfilling life.
May we have the courage in faith to continue through these challenging days.
May it be so.