No one ever plans to have their lives upended. We know that the world is broken and bound in futility, we know that everything can change in an instant, and yet crises still have the ability to shake us to our core. None of us entered 2020 planning to experience a global pandemic this year, but here we are, practicing social distancing, wondering how the virus will affect us and our families, and wondering when we will be able to return to our regular rhythms and routines as what can feel a little like the world falling apart around us.
In the midst of social distancing, I miss my church family. I miss my Bible study, the kids in my Sunday school class, the ability to meet people for coffee, and I know that I am not alone in this. It is not wrong to grieve the temporary loss of these things. In fact, we ought to grieve, even as we seek to live joyfully and find satisfaction in Christ in the midst of difficult circumstances. If we feel no grief whatsoever over the loss of something good, we might ask ourselves if we ever believed that it was good in the first place. Grieving when we lose something good is a sign that we felt the goodness of what we had and cherished it as we ought.
We are created for community with God and with one another. We learn in the garden of Eden that it is not good for man to be alone and that we are not created for solitude. This is reaffirmed in the New Testament where we see that the Christian life is meant to be lived in community. We are members of the household of God, being built together into a holy temple (Ephesians 2:19-22), a royal priesthood and a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9), and one body (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). The individual members and parts of nations, households, temples, and bodies do not live and exist separate from one another, but in community with one another. This is why we feel so keenly the loss of community in the midst of a pandemic and why we grieve that temporary loss.
At the same time, God pours out his grace in the midst of crisis. I do not know the mind of God in the midst of COVID-19, but I am certain that he is doing more things than I can possibly imagine and I believe that one of the things he is doing is using this outbreak to deepen our desire for community. The way that technology enables us to connect with one another while apart is an incredible blessing, and we ought to utilize it to follow the exhortation not to neglect to meet together (Hebrews 10:25), but it can never replace physical presence.
Shortly before the state of emergency was declared, a discussion at Bible study brought to mind Sandra McCraken’s song “We Will Feast in the House of Zion.” For the past week and a half, this song has been a comforting reminder to me that a day is coming when we will not experience the break in fellowship that we are feeling right now. Right now, we are “in the dark of night before the dawn” but morning is coming and when morning comes, we will feast in the house of Zion, where death and disease, frailty, fear, and panic cannot so much as touch us. We will experience unbroken fellowship in the presence of God with our brothers and sisters in Christ from every nation, tribe, and tongue. We will feast with our hearts restored and it will be a glorious day!
Our current state of dispersion is a reminder that we are, for now, exiles awaiting our true home. The temporary loss of community reminds us of the preciousness of what we are missing and teaches us to look forward in hope to the day when we will feast in the house of Zion. May this current season in which we are physically separated from one another strengthen our love for the body of Christ and make us long more deeply for a day when pandemics are no more and when we forever dwell in the house of God with the people of God.
Thank you, Patience, for your wonderful article. Your writing is blessed.
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