March 8,2020; remembering what was, accepting what is, looking forward to what will be 260/366

Every week when I go to clean the church building I think about how weird it is to have rows taped off so people can't sit in them. As I push my Bona mop over the wood floors, every other row, I check to make sure the hymnals and Bibles are facing the correct direction, make sure there are no loose papers behind or inside them and pick up the disposable communion cups. 

Last week, in a row that's taped off, I noticed a hymnal was backward so I reached over the pew to flip it.

There was a bulletin behind it. The first one I've seen in months.

 Thankful. How beautiful is that word.

I opened it, to see if I had somehow missed it all the weeks after November 2019. I was relieved to see I hadn't. I'm blaming the fact that it was in a  taped off row as the reason I have missed it the last six weeks or more I've been cleaning. 

When I saw that it was from March 8, 2020, our last normal Sunday, I almost cried. 
So much about corporate worship has changed. I'm thankful the church is not a building, it is God's people. I'm thankful for technology and small groups that have helped keep us connected. But I'd be lying if I said I don't long for the day we can gather as a large group, shake hands, hug and sing praises together, without masks or social distancing.

Philippians 1:3-6 is the passage on the cover. It seems appropriate to include it here.
"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."