Social scientists say that in times of great upheaval, interventions and behavior changes are more likely to stick. In other words, whatever “new” emerges from the disruption created by COVID-19 may have staying power.
“New” isn’t easy. “New” disrupts us and upends the comfortable and familiar. Instead of plunging ahead, our first instinct is to dawdle, actively or passively resist, and feel nostalgia for what is passing away.
A global pandemic forced you and me out of our usual habits. Staying home, we accidentally nurtured God’s creation. Before the Great Pause, it was hard just to imagine a clear, pollution-free sky.
But we were—and still are—at a moment that calls to mind John’s vision of “a new heaven and a new earth” in Revelation and of God proclaiming, in Isaiah 43:19, “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
This message is an excerpt from “Earthwise: A lesson written in the sky” by Anne Basye in the September 2020 issue of Gather magazine.
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