Keep Away From Me, But It’s Not Personal

When I phoned Ed yesterday, his wife Ruby answered the phone and said that I couldn’t talk to Ed because she had put him outside for curbside pickup. I knew she was kidding me, and Ed came to the phone. I told Ed that there wasn’t much demand for new or used husbands but that Ruby might get a dollar for him at a curbside pickup.

The call to keep a six-foot distance and safely interact with others has changed lives and continues to mean buying things differently. What is the best way to get what we need or want? Usually, when it comes to curbside pickups, the orders are placed by phone or online, paid for, packaged up, and perhaps put in the customers’ car trunk, or placed in a curbside area ready for pickup. It lessens the risk of contracting Covid-19, with less interaction with people.

Stay home and keep to just your own immediate family has tended to be a trial or a test of endurance. The limited mingling with friends and family will mean less up close and personal celebrating as we work toward Christmas. This year, folks may complain that Christmas was too quiet.

Many who have come down with Covid-19 express their surprise and shock, as they cannot figure out how they contracted the virus. When the Lord returns to earth, there will undoubtedly be surprise and shock both for the believers and unbelievers in Jesus. When Jesus rose from the dead, and Thomas was told that Jesus was alive, he refused to believe the other disciples. When Jesus appeared to the disciples when Thomas was among them, Jesus said to Thomas, “Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see: a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see, I have.” (Luke 24:39)

When Jesus appears, all doubt will end. The Bible warns that Christ will return from heaven, but it will be a surprise, and a shock as every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. (Rev. 1:7) Jesus speaks of his return in Matthew 25, “When the Son of Man, (Jesus) comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.” (Matthew 25:31-33)

Both the sheep and the goats continue to be amazed and unable to figure out why they are gathered to Christ or rejected by him. His judgment has to do with helping or not helping the least of Christ’s brothers during their lifetimes. Jesus is aware of our deeds of mercy done without any thought of reward, or our deeds not done for others that were unmotivated by love.

The sheep ask in Mathew 25, “When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty, and give you something to drink?… When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”

Jesus answers, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

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