To the Temporary Residents in a Time of Coronavirus, Seeking an Eternal Weight of Glory: Reflections on Faith and Permanence in a World in Crisis

By Rachel Starr Thomson

"I see a dam. It is golden and glistening, like a great solid gate in a canyon.
It holds back the floodwaters.
It converts them into power.
This is my prayer:
Lord, cause the flood of the enemy to cease. Hold it back. Stop it in its tracks.
And convert the surge into power. The power of love, of gospel, of the Spirit of God."

 

This short book is my offering to my brothers and sisters in Christ in a time of unusual crisis—a reminder of who we are and what truly matters, based on the themes of 1 Peter. — Rachel Starr Thomson

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little Dozen Press
• Release date: Mar 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781927658567

Rachel Starr Thomson

Rachel Starr Thomson is in love with Jesus and convinced the gospel will change the world. Rachel is a woman of many talents and even more interests: she’s a writer, editor, indie publisher, singer, speaker, Bible study teacher, and world traveler. The author of the Seventh World Trilogy, The Oneness Cycle, and many other books, she also tours North America and other parts of the world as a speaker and spoken-word artist with 1:11 Ministries. Adventures in the Kingdom launched in 2015 as a way to bring together Rachel’s explorations, in fiction and nonfiction, of what it means to live all of life in the kingdom of God. Rachel lives in the beautiful Niagara Region of southern Ontario, just down the river from the Falls. She drinks far too much coffee and tea, daydreams of visiting Florida all winter, and hikes the Bruce Trail when she gets a few minutes. A homeschool graduate from a highly creative and entrepreneurial family, she believes we’d all be much better off if we pitched our television sets out the nearest window. LIFE AND WORK (BRIEFLY) Rachel began writing on scrap paper sometime around grade 1. Her stories revolved around jungle animals and sometimes pirates (they were actual rats . . . she doesn’t remember if the pun was intended). Back then she also illustrated her own work, a habit she left behind with the scrap paper. Rachel’s first novel, a humorous romp called Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe, was written when she was 13, followed within a year by the more serious adventure story Reap the Whirlwind. Around that time, she had a life-changing encounter with God. The next several years were spent getting to know God, developing a new love for the Scriptures, and discovering a passion for ministry through working with a local ministry with international reach, Sommer Haven Ranch International. Although Rachel was raised in a strong Christian home, where discipleship was as much a part of homeschooling as academics, these years were pivotal in making her faith her own. At age 17, Rachel started writing again, this time penning the essays that became Letters to a Samuel Generation and Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer. In 2001, Rachel returned to fiction, writing what would become her bestselling novel and then a bestselling series–Worlds Unseen, book 1 of The Seventh World Trilogy. A classic fantasy adventure marked by Rachel’s lyrical style, Worlds Unseen encapsulates much of what makes Rachel’s writing unique: fantasy settings with one foot in the real world; adventure stories that explore depths of spiritual truth; and a knack for opening readers’ eyes anew to the beauty of their own world–and of themselves. In 2003, Rachel began freelance editing, a side job that soon blossomed into a full-time career. Four years later, in 2007, she co-founded Soli Deo Gloria Ballet with Carolyn Currey, an arts ministry that in 2015 would be renamed as 1:11 Ministries. To a team of dancers and singers, Rachel brought the power of words, writing and delivering original narrations, spoken-word poetry, and songs for over a dozen productions. The team has ministered coast-to-coast in Canada as well as in the United States and internationally. Rachel began publishing her own work under the auspices of Little Dozen Press in 2007, but it was in 2011, with the e-book revolution in full swing, that writing became a true priority again. Since that time Rachel has published many of her older never-published titles and written two new fiction series, The Oneness Cycle and The Prophet Trilogy. Over 30 of Rachel’s novels, short stories, and nonfiction works are now available in digital editions. Many are available in paperback as well, with more released regularly. The God she fell in love with as a teenager has remained the focus of Rachel’s life, work, and speaking.

Book preview

In This Moment

In this moment, coronavirus is all anyone is talking about.

Around the world, borders are closed and closing. People are being asked to self-isolate. Quarantine in their homes. Do not come out. Do not touch.

We know that some will die.

The economy is perhaps the bigger problem. It is the wreckage we will be dealing with when the pandemic is over. What is happening today is a crash; there will be a recession, perhaps a depression. Last night I ordered Thai food, takeout only, from my favorite Thai restaurant here in Arlington—a little hole in the wall called Sukhothai run by a darling Asian woman whose name I don’t know. I hope and pray they will make it through and still be here, open, when the storm passes.

But when the storm passes, the world will not be the same. Likely it will never be the same.

This much, and little else, we know.

IN TIMES LIKE THESE, it is good to be reminded of eternal things.

YET ONCE MORE, SAYS the Lord, I will shake the earth and the heavens.

This phrase, Yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:26–29, ESV, some paraphrasing)

I AM IN ARLINGTON, Texas, and not at home in Canada because I was visiting here in the southern United States when the pandemic hit. For several days last week my government began calling for all travelers to come home. Yesterday, the border closed.

I have chosen to remain here because if I go home, I have to go into mandatory isolation for two weeks. I live alone, so this means being entirely isolated—no family, no children, not even a pet.

If I go home, I also risk taking infection from here to Canada. So far we have far fewer cases north of the border, and I am happy to help keep it that way.

I am not afraid of the virus, but I do want to be wise.

So I am staying. The morning after I made the decision to remain where I am, I opened my Bible to 1 Peter and read these words (slightly paraphrased):

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To the temporary residents dispersed throughout the world ...

I do not know when I will go home. I am, for now, a temporary resident. Not the only one. Not an exile in the truest sense of the word. But in a strange position in these strange times, yes.

In moments like these I ask myself, what can I do?

In times like these, it is good to remember that which