Quarantine and community

For the last two weeks I have lived in a petri dish. The CDC put a huge white bubble around our home to confine the infection and protect the surrounding neighbors. My wife and I were reduced to pill popping lumps beneath a comforter on the sofa.

Incapacitated

Miserable

Rendered completely useless

There is no way to be a productive member of society in this condition, or good parents for that matter. Thankfully, several families stepped up to bring us meals on some of the worst days. We even conned a couple folks to keep Chloe away from the quarantined area for a few days. Our boys, on the other hand, were subjected to the dangers of their highly contageous mother and father on a consistent and daily basis. Through much prayer and a broken record of "get away" and "dont touch me" playing, they were able to avoid infection.

So far, so good.

Today were all back on the up and up thanks to many prayers on our behalf along with a couple shots in the rear end, eye drops, cough drops and enough ibuprophen and antibiotic pills to choke a mule. As I reflect on what the Lord was teaching me through all this (because all things work for good and He loves to discipline His children), I realized just how helpless we really are on our own, even when we are in perfect health.  We really need each other.  A member that has been separated from the body doesn't form another body.  It dies and decays and then stinks really bad until it becomes nothing and is blown away by passing winds.  Which brings me to my next point.

The Body of Christ is not confined to the membership roles of those who gather at a particular location.  Even if that is how a person thinks of it, it is not true.  We are all inter-connected with one another and we all receive life and instruction from the same source, the Head.  My eyes have been opened to the beauty of being a member of the Body of Christ.  Even as someone who has abandoned traditional church services and doesn't have his name on any membership roles, I am still intricately connected with, necessary to and dependent upon the other members of Christ body.  As long as I remain attatched to Christ the Head I also remain attatched to all those who are attached to Him as well.  Even if I'm not attatched to a pew every Sunday.  The fullness of Christ lives in each one of us and in Him we all live and move and have our being...together.  We can be separated by wide areas of geography and still be one and share the same life while two others can sit side by side but feel miles apart inside.  It all depends on the level at which we abide in Him.
 
I am so very thanful to be a part of such a loving body of believers.  Yes, I am simply speaking of the believers who know and love us in our community since we don't really "belong" to any particular group or organization.  And I'm looking forward to the ways the Lord will serve them through me in the coming future.

Anyways, that's my rambling for this particular day.  Oh, by the way, the CDC never really came to our home, but I was expecting them to at any minute.

So what has the Lord been teaching you this past week?