It’s hard to think about what I was doing a year ago, March 11, 2020. That was the day WHO officially declared Covid 19 a pandemic. I was determining the menu for our child’s 1st birthday party. I was debating what to do for cake. I failed three times at making cupcakes and was leaning toward cake pops. Did we need more decorations? We needed to get things for baby two, but that could wait.
I don’t remember everything and don’t know if I want to remember everything. I do remember rushing to shop at lunchtime on the 13th because someone told me they heard stores were going to close. We needed formula and the stuff for the party just in case there wasn’t enough in stores the next week. I didn’t want to change the menu again. When I saw how low the formula was in the middle of the day, that’s when things clicked for me.
Honestly, it hurts to share what happened that week. Essentially, my husband and I canceled the party. We also realized things would be different at least a year, if not longer.
Almost all experienced some type of loss or grief this year. Anything from not celebrating a birthday, not showing a baby the world, missing a “traditional” Easter, death, sickness, job loss, wage decreases, fractured friendships, and so much more. It’s easy to wonder, “Why” or think about how unfair everything is.
Is life fair? I don’t think so. The Bible reminds us the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Adam and Eve brought sin into the world by disobeying God. We are all sinful and continually prove that fact. We break the 10 Commandments. We do things against God’s will. We deserve death. God still loves us and He commits an unfair act.
God himself becomes man. He lives a perfect life and never warrants anything worthy of death. The wages of sin is death. Jesus didn’t have to die. Jesus chose to die. He gave up His life so He could be the one sacrifice for all times, places, and peoples. He rose again, proof the sacrifice for our sins was accepted. Trusting in what our Savior did for us, we may go to heaven one day. That’s it. Simply believing in what Jesus did for me means I receive his reward. That’s my “punishment.” I receive God’s gift of grace and God gives me the Holy Spirit to help me do something that simple!
The past year in particular has given much grief, exhaustion, and trouble. It’s ok to have emotions and grief over the past year. It’s ok to have those things every year! It doesn’t matter if someone “has it worse” or not. It’s ok to have emotions. We can thank God we have a Savior who understands us and those emotions. We have a Savior who understands what an unfair life is like. Best of all, we have a Savior who loves us so much, He literally died for us so that we could live with Him forever. Someone who willingly gave up so much so we could receive His reward. There may be hard emotions, but we can always look to Jesus. Remember the Savior who loves the same yesterday, today, and forever. Nothing in all creation can separate us from His love, including our feelings, emotions, or viruses.
I know the formula doesn’t look like it’s “running low” in the picture, but this was the lowest I’d ever seen it. I was shocked enough I took the picture.