2020 Hindsight: Appreciation for the Congregation

On most Sundays, my family starts the day off by going to Church.  Sure, there are times when vacation or other events/travel get in the way, but I'd like to think of us as one of the "regulars" at Sunday worship.  But we weren't there on the 75th day of 2020.  But very few people were at 4th and Race on 3/15/2020.  Social Distancing was being practiced and we all participated by viewing some materials online (including an amazing sermon from Michael Caine) and then something I never thought of happened.  We opened up a Zoom Conference and there were 40+ members all online.  The gallery of congregants was amazing.  It was great to see so many of the faces we see in the Church most Sundays, to hear their voices, to pray with and for them, to laugh and to cry with them, and to be, dare I say, in online fellowship.  Yes, tonight's 2020 Hindsight is my appreciation for the congregation of Old First Reformed UCC.  Sure we were online and it's still the case that I prefer in-person interactions to online.  But sometimes, online is the best option we have.  Whether it is FaceTime with a relative far away, or Facebooking with friends far and wide, or sharing information on the town-wide website.  Online can be a benefit (as long as we do not ONLY depend on it and we do not use the protection of the keyboard to say and do things we'd never do in person.)  And, today, I really appreciated that we could worship online and we will likely be doing so for the next few weeks.  I pray that you all stay healthy and that you practice social distancing as much as you are able so that this nightmare of COVID-19 can run its course and we can return to life a little more normal (I wonder if we will ever be back to where we were before this).  Wash Your Hands, Work Remote (if you can), order takeout instead of eating in (those restaurants still need your business), and I'll see ya online!

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