Church through a Mask

I wasn't expecting the world to really open and it didn't disappoint.  I went to get some things on Saturday and found so many things still weird and off limits.  Several stores will not allow you to come in without a mask.  There were part of Phoenix that gave me dirty looks for not having a cool and trendy mask on.  I know that this may not be true but this is what it felt like.  My children and I currently have a type of mask to use should we want to go into a store and not have a mask available. 

I didn't expect church to open.  I really didn't.  I also didn't expect things to get stricter after the quarantine has been lifted.  In the midst of the pandemic I was able to go to work if I forgot something.  Now I am no longer an essential person and there are less people with clearance.  It feels like we are going backwards. 

We went to church.  I thought it funny going to church looking like an outlaw.  I really hate trying to breathe through those masks. There is no old normal.  There is only new normal, a concept I understand very well.  And yet... I sang.  I wasn't in the corner so I wasn't hidden away but I sang any way.  I worshipped God.  I heard the Word.  I saw my brothers and sister.  I didn't see all of them but I saw some of them.  It is good to go to God and worship.

I thought of the woman who attempts to live their lives in a burqa/burka.  I don't like wearing a mask!!!  I thought of those who worshipped God in secret and underground churches and here I am rolling up with my people like it was nothing.  I thought of those who really longed to come to church but just couldn't.  I even thought of those people who didn't know what it is like to part of a church.  To see your children grow up in a church.  To see people you know and who know you.  Today I went to church in a mask and it was a blessing.  Praise the Lord!