It’s been a great week getting a Global Perspective on how God is working mightily through the covid-19 pandemic. Today Fotis shares from his perspective in Greece. Over there the weather has been beautiful, and the birds are singing. Perhaps you’ve heard birdsong in your neck of the woods recently too. What can we learn from them?
Nothing Has Changed
Today in our staff meeting George R. shared with us about the following wonderful picture of some birds he saw when he woke up this morning outside of his bedroom window.
The first thought that came to his mind was: “Nothing has changed for them…”
And the deeper truth is nothing has changed for us either! The world has almost turned upside down, the public traffic is almost forbidden, the airlines have closed down, the various governments have taken severe measures for handling the coronavirus 19. But for us as believers in Christ nothing has really changed.
We keep praying and trusting Him for our protection and our provision.
We may not be able to meet face-to-face, but we keep having the precious fellowship with other believers (thank God for the technology…) sharing God’s promises, stories of comfort, Bible verses and prayer requests.
We keep serving the needs of people around us, and try to be people of hope in a very panicked and sometimes hopeless feeling environment.
Greece, as a whole country, took very severe isolation measurements at very early stage in this health crisis in order to minimize the losses during this global pandemic. All stores are closed and only the grocery stores along with the pharmacies and banks are still open to the public. Most companies have asked their associates to work from home, and our cities look more like ghost towns.
Our evangelical community had declared a national-wide day of fasting and prayer last week which took place on internet with participation of people from the entire country. One good result of this challenge was the unity of God’s people and the willingness to stand next to each other. We plan to repeat it every two weeks!
God has taught us to live our daily lives satisfied in His presence and not in the programs we may be doing for Him. This time of solitude has reminded us to evaluate our priorities, to appreciate our relationships with other believers, to increase our fellowship with family members, to understand that we are not the epicenter of the universe and trust our Lord in everything He has in store for us.
We have people who have been sick among us, we see the news of people dying with great concern and prayer, and we reach out to help our neighbors in the best way possible. In the middle of this whole process, though, it seems we have regained something we had lost…we gained back our humanity!
It is true that nothing has changed for the sparrows singing every morning in our gardens in the biblical cities of Athens, Corinth, Thessaloniki, Philipi, Veria or anywhere all over our beautiful country, but in the midst of this we become every day more like the sparrows…recognizing finally our complete and total dependence on Him. This may be the greatest blessing we may get from this pandemic crisis…to trust more and more our all Mighty God exactly like the little sparrows.
Fotis R.
