Answers for Me Support & encouragement for every-day life
Consider Noah
Going back centuries to Noah and the Ark; talk about the biggest quarantine imaginable! Stuck with his family and the world’s wildest animals. I realize we can all relate here, but honestly, as much as it seems at times, my kids are not monkeys, hyenas, bats or sloths! What did Noah and his tribe do for 40 days and nights? Trivia? Pictionary? Comedy hour hosted by the talking parrots? Watch the monkeys sling dung at each other? Just when you think you can’t take another moment of wild, screaming, fighting, bored, distressed children, husband/wife, mother/father, aunt/uncle, please consider Noah. He survived 40 days on an ark with his family, whom I’m sure had their ‘issues’ as every family does.
In addition to your two dogs and one cat, Noah held responsibility for the whole entire world’s population of two of every kind of animal. Props to Noah! His faith, belief and hope kept him going. Pretty sure God threw him some encouragement here and there. And voila, in God’s destruction of an evil world, Noah single-handedly and sacrificially allowed this same God to use him as an instrument to save the last remaining good left in the world that we now call our home. Thanks Noah! (And Noah’s lady — because we all know behind every good man is a woman telling him what to do).
Consider Jesus
Next, I consider Jesus. He decided to self-quarantine in the desert for 40 days and nights. He was tempted, taunted and terrorized by the devil himself. Yet Jesus was unwavering in his faith and steadfast in his spirit. He did not give in to the devil’s plea to save himself, calling upon angels that would no doubt have rescued him in a nanosecond. Jesus needed to fast and pray. He needed to focus and draw himself away from the crowds, the noise, the craziness of the world as it was. He chose silence. Isolation. The desert. It beat him down. But it also strengthened his resolve. It gave him a clarity and drive he felt was lacking and allowed him to enter society with a stronger spirit, practiced patience and clear vision of his destiny as our world’s Savior. Jesus 1, Quarantine 0.
My Grandparents
Fast forward several hundred years and I think back to the time my grandparents had to be removed from their beloved, beautiful, blessed farm; the life they worked so hard to build and loved with all they had. My grandpa’s only wish was to live out his life and die a happy man on the soil he tended with his very own hands. Unfortunately, the Alzheimers did not allow his dream to come true. The Parkinson’s also made a prisoner of my grandma, a healthy mind stuck in an unhealthy body. On the converse was my sweet grandpa; a healthy body held prisoner by a confused, depressed and destructive disease of the mind.
Both my grandparents had to be placed in a nursing home. Quarantined from the only world and safe haven they had ever known. Seeing them lose their freedom was heartbreaking enough, but those visits. Those were tough. Within months of my grandmother’s passing, my grandpa followed suit. Even though his mind was cloudy, his soul knew it was without its mate. After years of quarantine, my grandparents will reunite in their eternal home. Once again they will be whole, happy and free in the spirit of youthful bliss, eternal peace, and neverending, ultimate, agape love.
Could Be Worse
So now I ask you. How difficult is it to be ‘quarantined’ in a home with electricity, running water, adequate supplies and your beloved family? It could be worse, right? And maybe, just maybe…..if the majority cares to protect the minority and remains faithful and steadfast in the ability to adhere to the current plea for social distancing, this will be but a blip on the radar of society’s ever-evolving history. So until we see that beautiful white dove with a dry olive branch in her beak coupled with the rainbow of promise, let us pray for patience, hope for healing, and find precious family quality in this time of quarantine.
Manndi Deboef writes from Missouri.
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