today than over the weekend. There are no school buses running to pick up kids noisily gathered on corners to go to school. The kids are all home as we are. Moms and Dads aren't shuttling their kids to school buildings, they are home. For some there is no commute to work, they are home. For others, there is no work, period.
And as we stay at home, it feels so oddly strange. As if we are waiting for the angel of death to pass and to pass over us. Every evening breathing a sigh of relief that we made it another day and stayed healthy. Every morning our first thought and prayer is for health. "Lord, may I not have the virus and may I have not spread it to anyone."
Is this how the Israelites felt that night in Egypt when the angel of death passed over their homes and yet was all around them. This will be a long night for us. Every day watching for symptoms, taking our temperatures, hoping and praying, I am not one. Anguishing with those who are and with all the doctors and nurses who are overwhelmed already and don't have adequate supplies. Praying
every time we go out to the grocery store that we won't get ill. Hoping our supplies last long enough.
It's the uncertainty of it all.
We are gripped in this pandemic and it feels like passover. Even our faith does not make us immune to falling ill or even dying.
May I give thanks to God for each day. I give thanks to God for the love I've known and known in Christ my Lord. I gave thanks that up til this present moment, I can still work, still serve. I confess my sins, my failings, my falling short, when I doubt or don't trust enough. That I wasn't a good enough pastor or wife or friend. Wasn't giving enough, loving enough, forgiving enough.
Ahh, but there is resurrection. In the midst of this Lenten darkness, we make our way to the tomb and discover, RESURRECTION. New life, eternal life. I pray for that day. Easter will come, not
just the date on the calendar. But EASTER, itself. I pray that I will be here to celebrate it, to revel in the joy of it, to breathe again and anew. But if I cannot, I will be still be celebrating the resurrection life with my Lord. For Jesus is the resurrection and the life. I will be more than merely a statistic, I will be home with my Lord forever. And I will be waiting for the rest of you to join in the feast of the banquet of life already happening and taking place where all God's faithful are gathered.
In the meanwhile, we live this passover each day, with the Lord by our side, ever with us, ever
loving us, grieving with us. Prayers are with you all and for all the world.
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