Coming Together ...

If you're anything like me, your social media has been filled the past few days with people recalling where they were and what they were doing a year ago when their world suddenly ground to a halt due to COVID-19.

I remember in the first month of the pandemic's impact on U.S. shores, amidst the heartbreak and worry I continued to see news articles and images of people coming together in creative ways to let each other know they weren't alone, in spite of isolation, quarantine, and uncertainty.  These images stuck with me in a profound way in those early days.

At one point I had a vision of compiling them overtop of a particular song that ran through my head every time I saw them, into a video showing the hope and love that was sustaining people in communities across the country and world.  As with many plans during COVID times, finishing that creative project never happened for me.

Tonight, as I was considering the year anniversary of things in my world shutting down into isolation, and what I wanted to write here about God, those images came flooding back to mind.  So it seemed as good a time as any to finish compiling them into one place.

The video isn't anything special - it's the sort of thing that's been quickly thrown together at 11pm from fragments stuck in a folder since last spring.  But God doesn't need polish and perfection to be seen.

This is where God's been revealed to me throughout the past year.  In the people, the connections, the efforts made to show love and compassion and assistance and support during one of the most trying times of our collective lives.  These images may be a year old in some instances, but these moments are what carried us through, and are glimpses of something special ... something spiritual ... something Holy, here on Earth.

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity." -Proverbs 17:17

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. [...] Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." -Galatians 6:2, 9