The news on the vine here in my neighbourhood is which supermarket now has eggs, where you can still get flour and of course – toilet rolls, and more. We’ve learnt to treasure our Premier corner shop that seems to have everything, most of the time.
We’re grateful that in this C-19 crisis our food supplies have held up. Yes, things disappear from the supermarket shelves but then reappear a few days later. We’re getting used to minding the gaps.
We’re saddened by the pictures of gallons of fresh milk being poured down the drain and – slap hands on foreheads – special ‘craft’ beers poured away, too, as orders from restaurants, hotels and pubs stopped in the Quarantine. Our hearts go out to farmers and suppliers and contractors who’ve built their businesses up for years, only to have them taken away overnight.
As far back as 612 BC, the prophet Habbukuk wrote that even in the direst circumstances, he could count on God. He didn’t deny the situation, but he didn’t dwell on it either. He put his mind to the gap between what he was seeing and what he knew God would do, and felt like turning cartwheels! He wrote a hymn to be sung by the whole congregation, with a full orchestra:
‘Though the cherry trees don’t blossom and the strawberries don’t ripen,
Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted,
Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, I’m singing joyful praise to God.
I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.
Counting on God’s Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I’m king of the mountain! (Habakkuk 3: 17. MSG)
Many of us are praying for the businesses that have been devastated by the quarantine: businesses that have been built up with hard work for years taken away in a day and £billions lost, -not to mention jobs.
We may not be able to turn cartwheels of joy like Habbakuk but we too, can mind the gap. One time, when Israel went out to fight the armies that were coming against it, after consulting with the people the King, Jehoshaphat, put the singers and musicians out in the front of the army. wearing their official chorister garments (2 Chronicles 20)! God’s rule prevailed and the armies were routed. Jehoshaphat minded the gap.
God’s goodness never fails us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvSuGyJQ6oM
