As churches, including ours, talk about how they will “regather,” (our church says we’ve never closed so we shouldn’t talk about “reopening”), we should be asking ourselves what we can retain from the experiences of the past few months.

For example, our church uses Zoom, as I’ve said before, and we are broken up randomly into “rooms” afterward for sharing. A few weeks ago, one of the couples in our group shared a concern they had with an adopted grandson who was having serious adjustment issues. Another person in the room, now 70 years old, urged them to hang in there with him. He said, “That was me. I had those same adjustment issues. I was 50 years old before I fully realized how much my adoptive parents loved me.”

It was a very significant conversation that I guarantee would NOT have happened during our church’s fellowship time under “normal” circumstances. (It’s highly unlikely those two couples would have talked with each other, and if they did, they certainly wouldn’t have gotten into that depth with all the other people around.)

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God… (Romans 8.28, NLT)

And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. (Philippians 1.12, NLT)