Quarantine, self-bonding, personal space, stay at home, safe distance, self Imposed loners: the words all mean the same thing. Community is broken. Gathering places empty. Hugs aborted. Hand shaking taboo. We are kind of giggling about it but it’s all too real to laugh. Two more weeks of stay at home. Of course that doesn’t mean stay inside with the shades drawn and the lights out. Actually it kind of means the opposite. While we must curb our activity with anyone who doesn’t live in our house, and within common sense we live life. Take walks. Grill out. Play ball in the yard. Draw pictures and mail them to aunt Gertie. Watch movies. And yet, we in our normal life weeks tell each other we are so busy. Now, we have all the time in the world.
Today, I raked leaves. Yesterday we split wood. Tomorrow we will work in the shop. For us, it’s usual life but we also have been playing a lot of cards, sitting by the campfire and calling and checking on people. Tomorrow I will make lunch for grandpa and take supper to friends. We will pass the food through the door and I will make a cd for them to listen to. I listen to five times more podcasts than usual. And for the first time in many years, I desperately miss church. When things are at our convenience we seldom treasure their impact. When their presence no longer is available, suddenly the hole is bigger than we can see across. And yet, this too will pass. And we will resume our hurried lives, get way too busy and forget how to read by the fire, shoot baskets in the driveway and call our neighbors. The fun drive by waving will become speeding in a hurry to get somewhere. Our hearts will once again be distracted. Or maybe not. Maybe we will let God keep his place in the drivers seat and handle the steering wheel…
Special Touch Ministry 