The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love (hesed) for you will not be shaken”. (Isaiah 54:10)
As we heard of Covid cases in Indooroopilly and learned of schools closing, it was natural to feel some anxiety. When we were in lockdown, many of us came to learn of many different families affected by the orders to isolate.
Yet how different all of our experiences have been. I may have been in lockdown, but I didn’t have to isolate and was conscious that I have my adult children in the house for company, had enough of everything for my needs and was able to walk out my door to a beautiful area. I could continue much of my work uninterrupted from home online or over the phone.
It gave me much pause to think of those who were finding working from home challenging whilst juggling child care and home schooling. To remember those who were confined indoors or on their own and feeling the isolation intensely. To think about how close the four walls would be for people in intensely unhappy or abusive relationships.
Knowing that some of these also would have been included in the thousands who had to isolate made me aware of the cost and doubly grateful for the commitment shown to the wider community by those who followed instructions so diligently. There is in this pandemic a recognition of the need for solidarity with one another and we have certainly seen this in the past fortnight. There were a few times I jumped on to social media posts where there were requests for assistance for things like grocery deliveries, only to find that there had already been so many offers of help.
We are walking through difficult days, and yet there is much cause for hope in the commitment being shown one to another. There is a beautiful Hebrew word hesed that means committed love; along with a sense of shared solidarity and acts of mercy and loving kindness that go beyond duty or what may be required or expected. I think we have already seen many examples of hesed in action in these days. The uncertainty of the times means that hesed could be the quality we need to cultivate most. It is a quality that grows as we embrace God’s unfailing love for us, lean into the calling of the Spirit and allow Christ to live through us. May our deepest self know the steadfast love of God and may that assurance draw us together in hopeful solidarity for such a time as this.
Grace and peace,
Sue+
