Five years ago many folks were still living in isolation because of the “shutdown” from Covid-19.  By this time, we had resumed our activities at church, but many had not. I was thinking about how differently people dealt with that event. I know some congregations never shut down at all. Others were shut down for six months or more.

Some individuals took every precaution to isolate and insulate themselves. Others went on with their lives as normally as possible. One of the things I noticed in general was that the more “seasoned” citizens, those who had been around the sun more times, got less excited about the disease than those who had not lived as long. I know that was true for Cheryl and me. We didn’t get as worked up as the younger generations did, and we were already classified as senior citizens by that time. I think we took it more in stride because we had already experienced a lot of things in our lives, and we understood that seasons come and seasons go.

God knew that was going to happen long before it did. The question we had to ask ourselves was, “How are we, as God’s people, going to react to this crisis?” God knows there are times for different things, and He speaks of that in His Word.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

There are a lot of “times” mentioned there that we wish would not come, but come they do. I was raised in a family where we readily gave and received hugs. I remember how hard it was for me and others like me during “social distancing.” This passage even siad there is “a time to embrace and a time to refrain.” Refraining was not an easy thing for me.

Something to remember is that in all of the “times” mentioned here, all of the seasons, God is in control. Our times are always in His loving hands. And in all these seasons we have the assurance of God’s love, which we see so beautifully displayed in a cross and an empty tomb. Jesus has conquered sin and death for you, and that is true at all times.