COVID for Thanksgiving

An uninvited guest came for Thanksgiving: COVID. For the record, yes, we wear masks, no I don’t know where we got it, and no I don’t think the kids brought it home from school. The girls school takes amazing measures to protect kids. This uninvited guest is everywhere and showing up to so many people’s holidays.

During quarantine, I was watching a Christmas movie in which a single woman wanted the perfect Christmas, but her family never delivered this “perfect Christmas.”. She felt like if only she wasn’t single and her family was more traditional, surely Christmas would be perfect. She was able to hop into a snow globe and get what she thought was the perfect Christmas. Unfortunately, she missed her family and realized her perfect Christmas was actually an imperfect Christmas with her family. Sounds silly, right? But how often do we think we know what will make our lives perfect and clock out (go into our “snow globe”) when we don’t find that perfection? I’d argue we all do this to some extent. What is your “snow globe?” Mine is definitely watching Christmas movies!

For those of you reading this who identify yourself as a Christian, maybe you turn to God to bring yourself back to reality, when you realize distraction is getting in the way of your faith. During our COVID-19 experience, I tried to find a balance between watching mindless Christmas movies but also turning to God to pray for guidance, strength, and health. You see, COVID wasn’t in my Thanksgiving plans, and it was a very hard, and lonely time, but I tried to see what God might be saying to me during this time.

Here are some takeaways from our COVID experience

#1: God said just STOP. I felt like He was yelling this at me. We had so much going on with moving, renovations, trying to sell a house, the kids, and Carl’s busyness at work. COVID forced us to stop. We just dealt with what was in our house. We had time to talk, and interact. I won’t say slow down, because the girls were still busting at the seams with energy, and I was trying to chase behind. I was exhausted, and still am.

#2: Carl was very sick which was scary, I started to wonder if he would be impacted for months. I wondered when he would be able to work again. Carl isn’t one to take even a sick day, and when he was laying in bed for over a week, fear set in. What would the long term effects be from COVID?

Listening to sermons, reading my Bible, and journaling, helped me give my anxieties to God, and put my trust in Him. I felt very concerned for my husband as he was lying in bed in tremendous pain. Seeing someone you love hurting is incredibly painful. You want to take away their pain, but you can’t. However where does the concern start to bleed over into worries about other aspects of our lives, beyond our spouses’ health? I was able to see things I turned to for comfort, because the fear of having those things taken away produced anxiety. What if we lost some of our comforts? How would I react? This time caused me to evaluate my heart and start to give some of these fears to God. Thankfully Carl is 100% better and his job was very understanding while he was so sick.

#3: Doing faith without a physical community is hard. I was thankful for the ability to listen to sermons but I missed people so dearly. Seeing the outside world, but not interacting is an odd feeling. I was reminded we are made to interact, and be people in a community, not just online buddies. During COVID there are times we can’t interact. Exodus came to mind. I felt like I was wandering through a desert.

#4: Our friends and family were beyond amazing. We had all of our needs and many of our wants. We had Thanksgiving dinner brought to our door, a few meals, activities for our kids, treats for me, and many texts/ calls. During such a hard time in our country, we often hear about the brokenness of humanity. However, we saw more goodness in humanity than can be expressed. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who checked on us, brought us things, and prayed for us. Your kindness will never be forgotten.

#5: A spirit of thankfulness. Each day Anna Grace and I put what we were thankful for on our chart. This chart helped both of us focus on what we do have and not what we were lacking. Almost every square was filled with a person’s name. Looking back at the chart, we could focus on how much we had to say THANK YOU for in our lives. Even though COVID has left our house (bye bye COVID, don’t come back), I’m still riding the thankful wave. I’m hoping this time will impact us to be thankful for a long time coming.

Anna Grace and I focused on the verse "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Neh. 8:10).” We often said this verse aloud together. To put this verse in context, God has delivered the people out of exile and helped them rebuild their home. God provided as He always does. But He provided as He saw best, not as the people saw best.

In closing, COVID is rough. Stay Safe. If you get COVID, let me know. I’ll pray for you if you are far away, and also bring you food if you are local. Sometimes we don’t know why God puts situations in our lives but when He does, we have the opportunity to seek God and make sure we don’t stay stuck in our snow globe.

P.S. We quarantined for almost 3 week so we didn't expose any of you! The one person we did see was tested and tested negative!