Love in a Time of Crisis and Pandemic: Messages for Our Children and Grandchildren

By Bruce G. Epperly

How can you talk positively with your children or grandchildren about living in a time of crisis such as a pandemic?

Our lives have been disrupted in so many ways, whether through economic hardship, such as lost jobs or closed businesses, or emotional hardship resulting from the lockdown. For many, it has been much worse. Your loved one may be dying in a hospital and you can’t even visit.

Adults have a difficult enough time sorting through this situation. What about our children? How do we talk to them and help them learn and grow, even as the world around them is deeply troubled?

Dr. Bruce Epperly has authored two previous books about this time of Pandemic: Faith in a Time of Pandemic, and Hope after Pandemic. In those books, he addressed letting our faith guide us through and motivate us to work for a better world following this difficult time. Now, in Love in a Time of Crisis and Pandemic, he offers words that can be shared with our children, words of faith, hope, and yes, of love.

This book will help you talk to your children, but it does so in a way that will help you as well. What can you do, what can you think about, and how can you live, so as to make the best of your current situation, no matter what that is?

This book is for everyone who needs courage to live in this time and to learn from it as a time of holy adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Energion Publications
• Release date: Feb 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781631996849

Book preview

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Love in a Time of Crisis and Pandemic

Messages for Our Children and Grandchildren

Bruce G. Epperly

Energion Publications

Gonzalez, Florida

2021

Copyright © Bruce Epperly, 2021

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scriptures marked AP are the author’s paraphrase.

ISBN: 978-1-63199-683-2

eISBN: 978-1-63199-684-9

Energion Publications

PO Box 841

Gonzalez, FL 32560

https://energion.com

[e-mail]

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments iv

1 The Still Small Voice 1

2 Grief and Fear 7

3 Love and Kindness 15

4 Hope 19

5 Trust 23

6 Joy 27

7 Creativity 31

8 Playfulness 35

9 Adventure 39

10 Peace 43

11 In the End, Love 47

Acknowledgments

Dedicated to my grandsons Jack and James

and to children, parents, and grandparents everywhere

with the hope that love and joy abound in every household,

on city streets, and country thoroughfares across our planet.

May they live in a land where justice serves everyone,

freedom rings for every child,

leaders are compassionate to the vulnerable,

and faith and science are companions in truth-seeking.

May the adults in their lives bring beauty to the earth

as they look seven generations ahead

with every important decision.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with us.

Chapter One

The Still Small Voice

"Go out and stand on the mountain before

God

, for

God

 is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before God, but

God 

was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but

God 

was not in the earthquake,

  

and after the earthquake a fire, but

God

 was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, What are you doing here, Elijah? (I Kings 19:11–13, AP)

There is a great storm out there and we are all anxious. It’s not a thunderstorm or blizzard. It’s not a tidal wave or hurricane. It’s a tiny virus that has turned your world upside down. The Coronavirus has closed your school and shuttered our church. These days, we can’t go to our favorite pizza spot and have to wear masks to play on the beach. We can’t go to dinner and a movie, because all the theatres are closed and our favorite restaurants are doing curbside carry-out, and we’re missing playing with friends and going to see our favorite teams play. Although we are phasing in, moving toward a new normal, school, sports, and church will be different than before. We will have to be careful about what we once did without thinking — hugging, bumping each other, playing around, or spending time with your cousins. Even at school, you will have to wear masks and practice safe distancing. It’s even possible that kids in your class will test positive for the virus and you’ll have to study online once more.

Zoom was ok for classes and playdates this Spring and Summer, and you can play with Legos and action figures with friends on Zoom. You can meet with your classmates on Zoom. But it’s not the same as being together face to face. It’s not the same as kicking a goal or shooting a basket or giving each other high fives after winning a game without worrying about catching the virus. This Fall, you didn’t go trick or treating in the neighborhood and we didn’t sing carols and light candles in person at church on Christmas Eve. Less than a year ago, we never heard the word COVID-19 and now it’s at the heart of everything we do!

It’s tough