Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. John 15:4 (NLT)
My husband and I were going away for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. I’d been traveling for 3 weeks and we decided we needed some time away. A family member opened up their home by a beautiful lake for us to use so we decided to take food with us to eat at the house. The morning we were going to leave, we decided to go to the grocery store.
We walked in and were shocked. Quite a few of the tables that normally were laden with fruits and veges were bare. Most of the staples we buy were not to be found. It was pretty disconcerting. As we walked around the store, we noticed the same in the frozen vegetable isle, the bread isle, etc. We adjusted and bought some other things and were on our way.
As I said, I had been traveling for 3 weeks so we were running low on some essentials. Don’t laugh but toilet paper was one of them. We were hearing all the stories of people hoarding toilet paper. Hard to believe during a situation like this that that’s what people are focusing on. Anyway, we were in the country so we decided to look there to see if what we experienced was just a “city” thing or a phenomena all over. We tried a couple of stores and they had food, but no toilet paper. LOL!
I am not going to even try to figure out the psychology behind that. I was however trying to figure out what I was feeling in my own head. I am finding this whole experience disturbing. In America, most of us have more than enough. Some of us have more than enough in our pantries to keep us fed for a long time. Yet, we are so fearful of being without. Granted, there are people who are not in that situation….and I bet they are not the ones in the stores hoarding food. As I said, disturbing.
As I prayed about it, I heard God say “Remain in me.” We are branches connected to the Vine of Jesus Christ. We need to stay connected all the time. During scary, disconcerting times. During hard times of sickness or job loss. During times of abundance and times of lean. During happy times where we get to celebrate good things. We always need to stay connected so we can, no matter what our circumstances, share the Jesus we know.
Nick and I have made a decision that we will share what we have during this time, no matter what. Even if we think we don’t have enough, we are going to be Jesus with skin on. We are going to reach out our neighbors and folks we know to make sure they are doing OK. We are asking God to show us how to help where we can. There are a lot of people trying to do this.
I think the harder thing is to really stay connected. To trust that God’s got this and he is in it with us. To trust that no matter what is changing in our lives, no matter how upside down it feels that we are still in the care of a loving Father. Remain. Stay connected. No matter what.