1. The church will step up. It always does. Church foyers will become food banks and, if necessary, temporary hospitals. Christians from all different flavors of faith will risk their own health to deliver needed goods to those who can't or won't leave their homes. Neighbors will walk down the street to share toiletries, eggs, cups of sugar, and baby formula with those who can't find a way to get what they need, and churches whose differences seemed so important just days ago will find themselves working together for the vulnerable, because that's what we do. It's what we've always done.

2. Families who have been promising themselves for years that they'd find a way to slow down will find themselves forced to do what they couldn't do by their good intentions. They'll end up around tables playing board games, watching movies they've forgotten they loved, talking about heartbreaks and puberty, remembering fonder or cuter times, listening to music, making music, and even praying together in ways they haven't before. Yes, there will be plenty of babies born nine months or so from now, because husbands and wives will look each other in the eye again, they'll laugh again, they'll slow down long enough to remember that they're in love, and in five years, they won't be divorced because a pandemic disease reminded them that their marriage was worth fighting for.

Yes, there will be difficulty. There will be trying times, and even loss of life. We know that, and this forced Sabbath we all have now doesn't come anywhere close to making up for the fact that a pandemic disease that destroys lives breaks God's heart, as it should ours. We will grieve, and every case of infection should make us grieve, because it's a reminder, here within us, in our flesh, that this world we inhabit is broken. But maybe that's why it's in moments like this, when we can no longer deny our humanity, that we feel most human, and we run so quickly back to the things that make us human - love, connection, laughter, and unhurried conversation with the people that matter most to us. And maybe, as we fight with every ounce of energy we have to end this as soon as possible so we can get back to the crazy lives we've built, we'll also leave this unique time, this pause, with a little more confidence in what actually matters.