“Sometimes you want to go

where everybody knows your name

and they’re always glad you came….”

I’m sure I’m not the only writer to mention that it’s been a year since we first closed down our hospitals and nursing homes to visitors in order to stem the tide of this pandemic.  So, for me, it’s been a year since I’ve visited many of our own homebound members. . . and a year since I’ve walked by the beds or rooms of others who I didn’t know, but who watched me to see if I would come sit awhile with them, too.

I have been thinking about them a LOT since we flew back from Phoenix after leaving my very social mother in a skilled nursing facility during COVID quarantine.  She was lonely within hours.  Some of our own people, who built this church, have been lonely for months.   Because of the pandemic, the ache of loneliness (unmet fellowship needs) has crept into most of our lives.   I remember many years ago hearing the Cheers theme song (see above) and thinking how glad I was that God gave us the church to meet that very human need; because, beloved, it is a need.  It’s not a need all of us feel as quickly as others, but it’s a need all of us have.

It’s harder to connect when there are fewer gatherings.  It’s harder to connect with masks and social distancing. But our texts, phone calls, window visits, even cards and letters mean that much more now, precisely because we have fewer gatherings!

Mamie Adams always went to a branch post office in her town because the postal employees there were friendly. She went there to buy stamps just before Christmas one year and the lines were particularly long. Someone pointed out that there was no need to wait in line because there was a stamp machine in the lobby. “I know,” said Mamie, ‘but the machine won’t ask me about my arthritis.”

Bits and Pieces, December, 1989, p. 2.

Take 30 minutes TODAY and call someone you haven’t talked to in awhile.  Take an hour and drive over to someone’s house and honk outside their window.  I know this thing is stretching out forever and we are getting tired of it, but it seems like God knew that might happen… “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9 NKJV)

Let’s keep loving God by loving each other,

Pastor Scott