❤️I wrote this for the Trinity Lutheran Church weekly newsletter and thought I would share it with you. If we aren’t afraid to look up, I think we will find He is everywhere. ❤️
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To say these are strange days would be an understatement, right? Looking back to where we were just three months ago, it’s hard to believe how much has changed. If you are like me, some days you wake up to the sunlight hitting your eyes (or a child jumping on your stomach in my house) and for a moment, all is well…and then you are hit with the stark realization that the world feels hazy and confusing…and sometimes the heaviness of that weight is claustrophobic.
My husband Joe and I have six children. They range in ages from “mommy and daddy hung the moon” to “mom and dad know NOTHING about the moon (or anything else for that matter).” While the days are long right now, we can’t help but recognize how fleeting this moment in time may be…this moment where, in spite of all the chaos and fear and uncertainly, the Good Lord has forced us all to slow down, self reflect, feel gratitude and come together even when we must stay apart. Well…forced some of us to slow down, I should say.
Joe and I have done our best during this time to keep our children and everyone in our lives safe—playing at home, staying away from other people, sharing only the germs that live in our household (trust me, there are plenty). So you can imagine my fear when I woke up one Sunday morning in the heart of this crisis to a vague pain in my elbow that turned into a full blown staph infection in 24 hours. In the ER in the midst of a global pandemic, I called on God’s grace to calm my nerves though my blood pressure that Sunday night told me I sent up that prayer up just a little too late. As I was admitted to the hospital, I have to be honest, I was terrified. COVID-19 was everywhere, I was certain of it.
“Don’t breathe”, I told myself. (That didn’t work) “Okay then, if you have to breathe, don’t touch anything.” (lowering my expectations)
As I sat there on my hospital bed, my legs tucked up underneath me, mask tightly secured, my sweaty hands clasped in my lap, I felt fear sweeping over me like a hot wave. The safety of our home had been replaced by what I feared was petrie dish of virus—it felt reckless and overwhelming. But then, in that moment, I looked up to the eyes of my nurse smiling back at me through her plastic sheild…and her eyes took a hard grip on my anxiety and said “Don’t be afraid, I’ve got you”.
And that is really the heart of it right? “Don’t be afraid, I’ve got you”
God is right here in all of this…God’s work, our hands.
God’s work, that nurse’s hands.
God’s work, my doctor’s hands.
God’s work…not WITHOUT the fear…but IN SPITE OF the fear.
I’ll skip to the happy ending where I’m okay…still tending a sore elbow but back safe and sound and hunkered down with my family like the rest of you.
But ever since that night of panic, tucked all up under myself in that hospital bed, it seems a little bit easier to see the light all around us that was hidden under that blanket of trepidation. God’s work, our hands…absolutely everywhere.
That cashier at Casey’s, she’s doing God’s work.
Those doctors and nurses with the tired eyes at the ER, God’s work.
That man walking into work at JBS, making sure the food supply is there to sustain us, God’s work.
Pastors preaching to empty pews to make sure we can still hear the Message loud and clear, God’s work.
That teacher waiting every day for little faces to pop up on her computer screen, while worrying about those that don’t, God’s work.
Those mommies and daddies that fall into bed at night, certain that they’ve failed again, God’s work.
The garbage man,
The nursing home staff,
The police officer,
The mail carrier,
The delivery driver,
The food bank worker…
All God’s work.
So on this day, even in the midst of all of this, my prayer is that we can feel gratitude for all God is showing us… Not WITHOUT the fear…but IN SPITE OF the fear…
As He whispers: “No matter what, don’t be afraid, I’ve got you.”
❤️