Everybody’s got a story. Some of us have longer calendars with more stories.
Where were you when JFK was shot? Where were you when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon?
Where did you watch Princess Diana get married? Where did you get word of 9/11?
What hurricane or tornado or snowstorm did you experience? What was your first phone?
Even if you aren’t old enough to have memories of some of these things, we are all still in the story of “the summer of 2020!”
Here’s one truth about 2020: while everything felt like jello being nailed to the wall, God did not, has not changed. His Story is eternal, powerful, and personal.
Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us there is a season for everything. Covid 19 is in there – a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing! There’s a time to grieve over attitudes and actions that cause injustice, heartache, and loss. There is a time to plant and harvest. There is a time to keep and a time to throw away. Right in the middle of chapter 3 is v 11 where we are reminded that God has made everything beautiful for its own time but even so people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work. (NLT)
Over and over God tells His people to remember the seasons.
Moses’ song in Deuteronomy 32 puts words to the wilderness season of God’s chosen people.
David in I Chronicles 16: 11-12 said Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him. Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given. (NLT)
Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1 proclaims joy and gratitude for God’s faithfulness in Israel’s journey and to a humble servant girl.
Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:3 says God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort other.
Seasons. Are you good paying attention to the season you are in? Do you recognize the season your family, friends, church, nation might be in?
What will we tell in our story of this unfinished corporate and personal season? Who or what will my words most represent? Will I be honest with the sadness, loss, grief of this season? Will certain unexplained peace and hope weave throughout? Will it be a story of becoming healthy or unhealthy in more ways than just physical? Will my story have a lot of personal pronouns or is God’s nearness, strength, faithfulness the main point?
When you look back, when this season is over, what will your story be to “where were you in the summer of 2020?”
The Story isn’t over.
May we live in the truth that the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us so we could know The Story.