Just a month ago we gathered. Remember that? We thought nothing of it. We always gathered. Gathering was a way of life. Gather, gather, gather. It was what we did without hesitancy or consideration of the possibility that we would ever NOT gather. We built our calendars around it. At KVNE, it’s a primary point of our mission statement. We CONNECT our community. One of the key ways we did it? We gathered. Often.

We gathered for so long that nobody ever fathomed we would someday be denied what we had assumed all our lives was such an inalienable human right. We. Get. Together! It’s just what we do.

And here we are.

It’s like learning to walk again. We’re learning a whole new way of life. And it’s only in the infancy. Of course I believe we’ll be able to gather again. But for now we’re adjusting, improvising, and coping with a new era no one anticipated. And at least for the immediate future, I believe it will profoundly impact the way we proceed.

Going to the movies. Going out to eat. Going to the game. Going to the concert. Shaking hands. Hugging necks. Kissing??? It’s all been affected. We can’t do it now and we wonder when we’ll do it again. And when we do, how will it look? And for how long?

Zoom meetings, social distancing, face masks, on-line church, elbow bumps and toilet paper hoarding will forever be remembered as marks of 2020. How it changes our future remains to be seen.

But God so often uses our struggles to teach us, to grow us, and to cause us to look to Him for comfort, guidance, and strength. In other words, to make us better.

We will gather again. But for now, we “gather apart.”

“…not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:25