The last 20-plus months have taught us all a lot about perspective. Things we held most dear suddenly took a back seat to talk of viral loads, case counts, death tolls, spike proteins, variants, mitigation, social distancing and various other hot-button topics associated with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. For some, this scourge has been a source of mere inconvenience; for others, it has forever altered life as they once knew it. Routines were either put on hold or thrown out the window altogether.
COVID-19, the disease that has killed some 650,000 Americans and counting, continues to plague our economic, educational, political and spiritual engines, with no certain end in sight. Someday—whether this year, in 2022 or at an unknown date in the future—this pandemic, like all others before it, will recede and slowly but surely allow us to reclaim a semblance of normalcy. We are afforded tastes here and there that remind us that our traditions still matter. Simple pleasures we once took for granted, like taking our kids out to Trick-or-Treat on Halloween in masks they chose to wear, have taken on greater importance now that we have experienced life without them. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are indeed part of the fabric that holds us together.
Not all of this time has been for naught. It has reminded us to keep our focus where it belongs: on Jesus and the cross. We must cling to the hope we have in Him, especially as we come to the realization that true hope exists nowhere else in this world. Trials have their purpose. As C.S. Lewis once said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
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