Apart But Not Alone

HOLY MONDAY • April 6, 2020

 By Rosella Shishido, Director of Communications

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4-5: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance …. a time to embrace, and A TIME TO REFRAIN FROM EMBRACING.”

There’s no better time than these COVID days to take the last part of that verse to heart! It’s a verse that stood out for me only in light of what’s happening in our world today.

We’re now several weeks into physical distancing, where the choice to not hug and to not shake hands is now considered caring, as the world pursues its mission to stop the spread of the virus.

Your world, my world, everybody’s world has been altered. It’s like we went to bed one night and woke up the next day only to find out that the world, as we know it, has changed. Our lives have been disrupted, and whether we like it or not, this is the new norm.

How long will this last? No one knows for sure. It could be several more weeks or months, but how we respond collectively will make the difference.

A couple of weeks ago I heard our new neighbor calling out from our driveway. He said he was driving out when he saw an unleashed Black Labrador Retriever chasing a feral chicken, and he wondered if one of our Black Labs had gotten loose.

“No, not ours. Both of them are here,” my husband said, as Bear and Storm almost drowned him out with deafening barking.

Our neighbor said, “Ah, okay. Just checking. We’ve got to look out for each other, you know.”

How about that? A neighbor, whom we hadn’t even officially met, cared enough to ask if something that was dear to us was missing. I found comfort in that.

Have you heard of The Parable of the Long Spoons? (No, it’s not from the Bible.) It’s about two rooms, each with a round table with a pot of food in the middle. People were gathered around each table, and each person had a long spoon to eat from the pot. The people in the first room tried to eat but the long spoons proved to be unwieldy, making it impossible to bring the food to their mouths. They struggled, got frustrated, and starved. The people in the second room, however, were happy and healthy because they realized they could use their long spoons to feed each other.

The moral of the story? Kindness and a caring attitude can make an impact on a situation.

Let’s keep looking out for each other, just as Jesus would want us to. Prayers, phone calls, video calls, emails, text messages, volunteer work, and donations can be what a church in New Zealand calls “isolutions” to isolation. They all add up to people feeling loved, included, and thought of in the midst of this crisis.

The pandemic will not last forever (yay!). The “time to weep, the time to mourn, and the time to refrain from embracing” will end, and pave the way for the comeback of “the time to laugh, the time to dance, and the time to embrace.”

I look forward to that.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we praise You for being our Rock and Hope during these uncertain times. Thank You that You don’t change. On this Holy Week, we reflect on the hardship and the suffering You went through leading up to the cross. We take comfort in the fact that You know what it’s like to go through intensely challenging times.

Help us to take care of one another through this crisis, and promote hope and peace in the process. In Your Name we pray, Amen.

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