by Dave Williams
April 2, 2020
The whole world is gripped with fear. COVID-19 is killing people, overwhelming health care systems and forcing the global economy to its knees.
As I write this we’re all being told to stay home, wash our hands constantly and don’t touch our faces. We’re told to stay at least six feet apart lest Armageddon takes us all, one hapless victim at a time.
Mass media reports are hysterical.
What if this is a Grand Plan? What if God is hitting the reset button and putting us back on the right path?
If you don’t believe in a supreme being that’s fine. I’m not sure I do, either, but hear me out.
Whether this crisis is real or manipulated as some believe, whether or not the threat to human life is real or overblown it is undeniably real in the changes it has brought to all of our ordinary lives.
People are staying home. Families are forced to spend time together, to play games and to remember – or learn for the first time – what it means to be a family.
There are more people walking the streets of our neighborhoods than ever before. They’re staying safe but being brave, acting cheerful and neighborly. I’ve gotten waves and smiles from people on our street I’ve never seen before. Social media is giving us glimpses of families and friends engaged in happy play in the safety of their own homes.
Kids have never had it so good. Not since I was s child in the 1950s.
Our dogs have never known such loving attention and companionship as they do now, the kind of love they’ve always given us.
We’re home. We’re fearful but we’re learning to rediscover our humanity and the meaning of life on our own terms.
Even the terrorists are setting aside their fratricidal tactics to ensure their own safety. ISIS recently told their own death squads to hunker down. Think of it, people who willingly blow themselves up to take innocent lives are suddenly fearful of their own mortality.
Change is in the air, all around the world. It’s a terrifying time to be sure. But what if it’s just meant to be, for our own good?
The New Testament describes Armageddon as both a place and a revelation of events that many deem to foretell the end of the world.
What if it’s really a new beginning?
Believe what you will of the existence of God and Revelations. I don’t know what to believe. That stuff is over my head. But I do see something resulting from this pandemic, real or imagined, that is more hopeful than we might have ever dreamed possible.
We’re setting aside our petty differences, putting careers on the back burner and finally finding time for each other.
This may be much more than a silver lining around a dark cloud. It just might put us back on a path we lost a generation or two ago.
Family, friends; do unto others.
For now at least, love, decency and kindness seem to be in vogue.
I embrace it and look forward to a better, happier world when this is all behind us.
What do you think? Leave your thoughts with me, here.
#StaySafe. #BeBrave. #BeHappy.
Hey, Dave, your column was/is interesting. I do believe that God is in control and know that I am responsible for staying home and doing the best I can with the situation. It certainly is a wake-up call, I think. Everyone probably wants it to end sooner rather than later. However, “normal” is probably not going back to the way things were. I think it will be a new normal, whether bad or better. It will just be different.
Stay safe and keep writing throught-provoking pieces.
From your cousin, BJ
I was writing a lengthy about how the world would end, and the e-ffn website had a hiccup and I lost my post before it was done. Not going to write it all over… I feel this pandemic is just a test, I don’t know from who (but certainly not whom everyone is blaming). But I this how it will end using the results of this very “successful test.”
Oh,AnIta,, you are so correct! Children learning to entertain themselves, parents realizing what amazing children they have and learning a big appreciation for teachers, people being civil with one another, from afar. As I posted on fb: Look at this as a reboot to our values and priorities.