I felt such an unexplainable peace sitting in the silence of my home while at work and looking out on my back deck where the rain was slowly drizzling down. I noticed the empty patio chairs and table and my mind goes back to the time last spring when my family was reclining in those chairs, my children and their spouses each eating dessert and drinking coffee, laughing, talking and enjoying each other’s company. The grandchildren were playing in the yard. I can see them all there and my heart years to go back to that day and to experience that again.
Everything seems so peaceful with the drizzling rain against the newly budded green trees. A robin occasionally comes and perches in the deck and a squirrel scurries around in the trees. It’s as if nature doesn’t know the silent war that’s going on in the world. Did someone forget to tell spring? Why are the trees budding and turning green the way they do every year?
Of course nature knows. God controls the seasons and He decided that spring should come this year anyway. Perhaps to tell us that the world isn’t ending just yet.
We’re in the third week of isolation because of the Coronavirus pandemic and while I’m enjoying a bit of a slowdown and working from home, I’m starting to miss my loved ones and their hugs and the simple things like getting in the car and going where I’d like to go and doing what I want to do.
Naturally, this pandemic didn’t catch God by surprise. He’s aware of those who are quarantined at home, those who have lost their jobs, those who are sick and especially the hurting and the dying.
Perhaps the question we should be asking God isn’t why is this happening, but what do you want me to learn from this? Have you forced the entire world into this isolation and slowdown for a much needed rest? Is this just a way to somehow cleanse the earth and decrease pollution? Are you wanting families to connect more? Or are you longing for the world to turn back to you?
I can’t pretend to know what God is thinking, but what I can do is ask Him what He wants me to do during this time and what does He want me to learn. Whether it’s being isolated at home or working on the front lines in our hospitals combating the virus head on God has put us each in this place.
I love these words from the late Zig Ziglar. “Expect the best. Plan for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” I don’t believe he’s talking about capitalizing with money here, but rather maximizing the most of the opportunities we are presented with, even though we may not initially view them as positive.
What have you been given during this time that is unique? Is it time with family like never before, more time to reflect, to read, exercise, pursue that hobby or deepen your relationship with the Lord? Glean from it whatever you can and learn it’s lessons for this too shall one day pass.
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
Psalm 46:10
Duking Out Life 