So close, so far

So here’s some snippets from my Sunday. (Which gives you a hint of how much lag there is between writing and posting.)

I worked my daily list (reading, learning, writing — that last one proven by this post), and then I joined the live stream of church.

First, the 9:45 service of my sister’s family’s church here in MD. Very good message, grounded in the story of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. And then, just cuz it had been a while and I miss my NJ friends, I joined the services from my old church via Zoom. Excellent message grounded in the story of Jesus calming the storm.

Those two churches could not have a more different stylistic sense to the preaching, but I so enjoyed and got something out of both of them, in their different ways.

That said, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to church without a coloring book.

Being online with my old church family made it all seem like yesterday that we were last together.

So close, so far.

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After both church services I went downstairs for my workout – during which I got calls from both my parents and my sister.

Sis was thinking maybe we could do an outdoor social-distancing almost-gathering. You know … 6+ feet from each other … but faces and voices, in person.

It fell through (if we did it, we’d wait for better weather so we can give each other more distance than that). So close, so far.

But the shelter in place order subsequently went into effect, so that’s out for now anyway.

So close, so far.

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Some sources say we shouldn’t do even that. That the only truly safe course of action to limit the spread, is to stay in.

And to be honest, I think it would hurt my heart even more to see my sister or my nieces in person and not be able to get close to hug them. It’s an ache to even think of it.

So close, so far.