Everything's weird

Everything's weird because we're all pretending that it's not.  We're trying to do life as usual, but there's nothing usual about what we are experiencing during this pandemic.

I'm sitting here watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and it is surreal.  I mean I'm glad they're still having it.  

But no one is there.

The streets are empty.

Everyone is singing and dancing as if everything is normal.  

But it's not.

And underneath all the "festivities," it just feels so sad to me.  It's as if we all want it to be like it once was.  

It's nice that they want to still have the parade, to "keep our spirits up," but it all feels really hollow to me.  

They just showed an overhead shot of the Brooklyn Bridge and it was eerily bereft of traffic.  To think of the millions of New Yorkers who are in the habit of complaining about the traffic - how they all must yearn to have the chaos of the hustle and bustle of the traffic once again, and people filling the streets once more.

We are trying to be "up," but we just can't celebrate as fully as before, if we're really honest.  I mean it's the proverbial "elephant in the room," this pandemic, only it's the "elephant" in the entire consciousness of the world.  

This thing is huge.

So how to get our hearts back into the Season?  Into life?  How to move forward with "life as normal" when we know full well that it is not?  

The only way that we could move forward now is to do so the same way we have before; that has not changed: by focusing on the real Reason for the Season, the birth of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the One we are supposed to be celebrating anyway.  What better time than now for a real Reality check?  

Jesus fills our hearts and souls with real joy.  More joy than any parade could ever offer us.  

As Christians, we don't have to pretend that life is anything like it was pre-pandemic.  We don't even have to yearn for "life as normal."  

We can tap into the ever-present joy that lives inside us - the joy that never ceases no matter what is happening in the world.  We can know contentment in Christ.  I pray that we do so this Holiday Season and always!