So the highlight of my day was finding an unopened, large, long-forgotten bottle of 86% alcohol hand sanitizer buried in the back of a cabinet I was cleaning. What does that say about our times...? (And I just had to add "sanitizer" as a word to this computer's spell-check...)
Our devotion today comes is a poem sent from PEVA as encouragement to us:
Pandemic
What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath — the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now, on trying to make the world different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still, reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move, invisibly, where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love — for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, so long as we all shall live.
— Lynn Ungar 3/11/20 From an email from McCormick Theological Seminary
BOREDOM BUSTERS:
GET OUTSIDE!! The weather for Friday is forecast to be fantastic. So garden. Take a walk. Clean out something in your garage with the door wide open. Find a friend to wave to, or eat at opposite ends of a picnic table and catch up.
Family-friendly option: I bet you have heard about people using sidewalk chalk to turn driveways, sidewalks, and streets into artwork and encouragement for people walking by. Join the fun. And send me a pic so I can post it here!
Coloring prayer For all ages, an easy way to pray
And, oh yeah, read the book of Esther. It's the scripture for this Sunday's sermon! For kids, watch the Veggie Tale "Esther: the Girl who Became Queen." You can binge-watch Veggie Tales on watch.yippee.tv for free for a week. (It's the only legal streaming site for Veggie Tales now - not even on Amazon!)
Pastor Mike reads "Brian the Brave" by Paul Stewart
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