Living in Limbo
Life is at a halt. We are heeding the
lockdown regulations, staying at home and social distancing. All the plans we
had for traveling are cancelled. After months, we are still waiting for life to
resume—with no real expectation when it will. We check the infection rates and
the death toll daily, hoping that the number of new cases will drop
significantly as a sign that we are winning the battle against the unseen
fiend.
It is like taking a train through a long
tunnel under the mountain peaks, hoping that when the train comes out on the
other side everything will be just fine. The problem is, waiting for the train
to see light again is taking much longer than we expected. In the meantime we
live in limbo, waiting for a miracle to dispel the nightmare that so many
people are currently experiencing.
Waiting
As an active person I hate waiting,
especially if I don’t have a project to help while away the time. But waiting
for a pandemic to pass is quite another dimension of waiting, because it will
probably take much longer than we ever expected for us to return to something
resembling normality.
It seems so strange to just have to
wait—maybe a whole year or more—as if we had never entered the Year of Our Lord
2020. I would like to cancel this whole year, from beginning to end, so that I
didn’t have to live in this uncertainty, and just start over again in
2021. Usually when we wait, we know what we are waiting for: the arrival
of a loved one, or an appointment, or something that we can at least calculate
in some way. Now we are waiting for the end to something that is so
incalculable and unknown that we are overwhelmed. It is all so abstract.
It is easier to wait for something we
can touch. Something concrete. We need physical contact, and only now have I
realized how important this is for our mental well-being. We are glad to see
our children and grandchildren via Skype, but that is not the same as hugging
them and enjoying close contact. With every day that passes I miss them more
and more.
What Christians Wait For
As Christians who believe in the Second
Coming we have been waiting for a long time for something the Bible describes
in great detail: the glorious Advent or our Lord as King of kings and Lord of
lords. It’s described in language we try to understand, and yet we don’t really
know what it will be like. Our minds have been influenced by Harry Anderson’s
paintings in the children’s Bible Sotry. But will it really be like that? We
know the glory of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”—but what will the heavenly multitude
really sound like? What will heaven be like?
In Bavaria, some people still imagine
heaven as a little cloud on which a sweet little cherub with bare feet, dressed
in a white nightgown, plays the harp and sings Hallelujah all day long. But who
wants to sit on a cloud all day? Heaven is not something most people are
looking forward to. After all, life on that little cloud is almost like waiting
for something to happen—and nothing ever does. And then only harp
music—wouldn’t that be tiresome?
My Savior’s Face
There are melodies that give us courage
while we are waiting. “Get on board, little children, get on board.” Don’t stay
at the station, looking at the disappearing lights of the caboose. But how long
will we have to wait for our train to get through the dark tunnel of this
world’s problems? It really doesn’t matter, as long as we are on board this
train on our way to our heavenly home.
Another song I loved to sing is “Heaven
is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace, I want to see my Saviour’s
face. Heaven is a wonderful place. I want to go there.” Heaven may be a
wonderful place, and I am sure it is not just that little cloud with the
cherub. But the best thing about Heaven is that Jesus will be there. I can look
forward to touching and feeling Him, being hugged in His great embrace.
I’ve met old folks in nursing homes who
are just waiting for time to run out. They live from meal to meal, morning to
evening, and then through a painfully long night. Fortunately, some are waiting
to see their Saviour’s face in that wonderful place God has reserved for His
children. It doesn’t mean that their days and nights are any shorter, but they
have something to look forward to that gives a meaning to each day.
So, how do we cope with this pandemic
that has turned our lives upside down? Is there something that gives meaning to
our days? What do we have to look forward to? Can we make plans for the time
when the virus has been eradicated, however long it may take?
Let’s not be discouraged, but as the
apostle Paul said, “I will return to you if God wills” (Acts 18:21 NIV). We
will enjoy life and family and friends again, if God wills, so don’t give up!
As long as we take God’s will into consideration we should look forward to the
future and make plans. And although we might have to scrap those plans, as long
as we wait patiently for the Lord and with the Lord, this difficult time will
pass.
And in the long run, waiting to see our
Saviour’s face and feel His arms around us is well worth waiting for.
Adapted from an article first published
on Adventist Today on July 30, 2020
Photo: H.Ottschofski
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