Remember those days of sitting down in a restaurant? Or dropping the kids off at school? Or hugging grandchildren? Or walking into a store to buy toilet paper? Life, between the first stay-at-home order and the yet-to-be-determined release dates, put so many of our normal routines on intermission. What used to be is gone; what is yet to come is unknown.
The Israelites also found themselves in an in-between place when they were exiled to Babylon, far away from life as they knew it in Jerusalem. Their situation was more of a stay-away-from-home order. They surely grieved the loss of their traditional culture, customs, and especially their temple, the centerpiece of their faith. They had no idea what life might look like if they ever returned. Sound familiar?
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God responded to their paralyzing sense of loss with these instructions: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters…” (Jeremiah 29:5-6). They did not want to hear about finding purpose in their exile, rather, they only wished for life to return to “normal” as soon as possible. Sound familiar?
In a letter to the exiled people, Jeremiah sent these oft-quoted words: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11). God knew that they would one day return to Jerusalem, but not before 70 years had passed, along with a generation or two of Israelites. But God was also offering them hope in the present, a prosperity during this in-between time.
And so might be God’s message to our 21st century exilic quarantine. Live your life. Enjoy the time with family. Find the blessings in the abnormal. Celebrate prosperity.
Prosperity? What does financial well-being look like when the economy is shut down? How can we prosper before the country opens back up? The word that is translated “prosper” is the Hebrew word shalom. It’s a Hebrew word that most of us know as a greeting of peace. But shalom is so much larger than that. Shalom means to experience peace that comes only to the life that is lived as fully as God means it to be. But peace in quarantine?
Yes. God’s plan for us, now and in the post-coronavirus days, is to know this peace that comes from being completely who we were created to be, even now. Instead of spending our current days longing for what could have been or fretting over the unknown future, real hope is built on finding God’s peace in the in-between.
Shalom. It is what we need right now. Shalom.
On Second Thought 