And the People Stayed Home

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.

And listened more deeply.

Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.

Some met their shadows.

And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed.

And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

-Kitty O'Meara

*I'm sorry I don't know more about the author or circumstances it was written in.  I came across it and it struck me. It's not overtly Christian but through a Christian worldview lens I read several things into it. 

Back to the basics. Listening instead of being too busy talking about myself. Reading good and beautiful books instead of scrolling social media. Stretching and exercising my body instead of laziness and apathy. Playing, walking, cooking, baking, writing. Surrounded by my family.

The poem clearly states that the World needs healing so I can conclude she believes it to be broken. And it is. We don't need a pandemic to prove it. Or maybe we do. 

Cultures are so far from Jesus and the message of grace and forgiveness that we need to think differently!!! Humanity is broken!! Death, war, calamities, heartaches, and pandemics are constant reminders that this world is sick. There IS more. You say a loving God would never allow this to happen to us if there really was one? I say a loving God has provided a way out of the doom that is sure to come. A loving God sent his own Son, Jesus, to walk this earth and live a perfect life in our place. Only He was in a position to do that because He is 100% God and 100% man. After living 33 years of His life perfectly, He was punished for the sins OF THE WORLD on a cross. The punishment that is rightfully yours and mine looked like (and actually was) God Himself turning His back on Him. I can only imagine. No hope. No love. No sunshine. Nothing. That is hell. 

Until there was healing. Christ rose from the grave and walked around for 40 days making sure there were plenty of witnesses and encouraging His followers, equipping them with what they would need when His heavenly body would leave this earth. His resurrection guaranteed ours, His believers. In Him we are healed!!

And when this danger finally passes and we return to "normal", it will be easy to revert back to our pre pandemic selves. But this time we will have His Spirit in us and working through us and we will see things differently and will slowly but surely make a new "normal". 

We will say, "Enough with the "woke"ness of today and WAKE UP to the needs of our neighbor!" Care about them more than about me, myself, and I. 

We will say, "Heaven is my home and while I walk this earth I find my purpose in glorifying Christ, growing in my knowledge of Him, and doing what I can to spread this message."

We will ask, "My spouse, my kids, my parents, my job, my church, my community, my government are Blessings and Gifts from a good and gracious God and how can I better love, serve, respect, and honor them going forward?" 

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from ourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:8-10

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:22-24

And for now don't forget - 

"Wash and make yourselves clean" Isaiah 1:16 (taken a bit out of context...:)