April 1st is no joke.
There is so much happening where you end and I begin. 6 feet is far, but if we’re fully conscious, we can experience what the Celt’s call “thin places,” the place where Heaven meets Earth. Here are a few of my recent thin places.
Thin place…when your sweetie shops for you and tells you the story of shoppers strolling mindfully, neighbors offering kindness and respecting the space between them.
Thin place…on the daily walk in front of the hospital where my niece and friends work…remembering friends and family concerns about their loved ones’ “front line” bravery… calling to mind their prayers or petitions for more masks, vents and protection…and I am reverent.
Thin place…on the phone with those who live alone, single moms, dads, and the elderly who are bearing this burden by themselves…feeling their ache in my gut and longing for them to have relief.
Thin place…on Zoom with young families who are living a hard, beautiful, loud, hilarious, and a seriously messy season of life.
Thin place…online Sunday services, small groups, retreat and midday prayers, where people sing in their living rooms, drop the phone while they’re filming and are honest with their grateful, sad, angry, fearful and faith-filled prayers.
Thin place…dear ones who are grieving and we can’t hug them…remembering how much I care.
Thin place…when we tried to order from our best-loved restaurants now closed…remembering my favorite faces in those places.
Thin place…listening to Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx tired voices and feel their formidable presence…and I am full of gratitude.
Thin place…on a sibling-video chat with our 93-year old mom and how happy she is to see our faces for the first time in a month!
Thin place…in the Emails from a long-ago friend to tell me her brother just died from COVID-19… another friend texts to say her son and daughter-law have the symptoms and quarantined…another to say her kids and g-kids are getting tested…Lord in your mercy…
Today’s thin place is the 32nd anniversary of our son Paul’s death. Through Paul’s sickness, he taught me how to cherish thin places. He taught me to receive love from God and others in ways I never would have chosen, but now wouldn’t trade for anything.
Maybe COVID-19 can do the same for us. Maybe we can learn to savor heaven meeting earth, God’s “Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven” As we walk in this global solidarity, may this shared suffering cause us to love our neighbors as ourselves. There are so many thin places when we are 6 feet apart.
April 1st is no joke.