Last Sunday, I took part in a birthday parade for a matriarch of my congregation who just turned 90. Mrs. P and her daughter stood on their front porch and waved as we all slowly drove by and waved out our car windows and honked our horns.
In normal times, the congregation would have celebrated Mrs. P’s birthday with cake and punch in the parish hall after worship, and those same two hours would have been just about enough time for everyone to shake Mrs. P’s hand and kiss her cheek. But these aren’t normal times.
I know you have someone like Mrs. P in your congregation, and maybe in your circle. Or maybe one of your congregation or circle is a cancer survivor, or has asthma or diabetes, or any of a dozen other conditions that make her more vulnerable to severe illness.
There are still plenty of people like Mrs. P (and me) who will be avoiding gatherings indefinitely. And that’s fine.
We have to be careful. Why? Because we are our sisters’ keepers.
This message is an excerpt from Women of the ELCA’s June 2020 monthly devotion by Audrey Novak Riley.
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