Dear Church Family,
During the virus crisis I have ended many conversations with “Be safe.” I think I started doing so after seeing a newscast on TV sign off with it. It conveys hope that people will kept from danger and enjoy good health.
We have taken extreme measures to be safe during this time. I rejoice that our church is enjoying good physical health over the last several weeks. Throughout the winter and now a month into spring, I made only a few hospital visits and few members have been admitted. I was willing to go to Duke to visit someone, but as at Mission, visitation restrictions kept that from happening. Most of us have stayed at home except for a trip to the grocery store. We have stayed at least four cubits (six feet, but I think we should use a Biblical term that was good enough for Noah) from one another. Thankfully the curve seems to be flattening and the restrictions might be lifted sometime in May.
Having done all that, are we safe? ‘Experts’ have advised us to wear a mask when in public. The N-95 model offers the best protection of any mask on the market. That means 5% of viruses might still get to you. This model is in short supply. Instead, people are making their own. This is a noble effort. Sadly, a cloth mask could be marketed as N-3. In other words, 97% of more of the viruses can get through, thus offering next to no protection. Yet many confidently head out in public not realizing the mask is of little value. Sorry to be Debbie Downer. You might consider giving N-95 masks as gifts.
Deuteronomy 33:27 directs us to a safe place, “The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you.” In 1887 a Presbyterian elder wrote a hymn based on these words with the help of a friend. A letter from a distraught former student led him to write a beloved song of comfort. Do these words of the first stanza sound familiar, “What a fellowship, what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms”? Anthony Showalter and Elisha Hoffman penned words that reminds in the refrain that God’s people will always be “Safe and secure from all alarms.” You are safe when you lean by faith on the everlasting arms of your Lord and Savior. He is rated 100% effective!
With great hope,
Pastor Gillikin