March 2020 | GoTell

Unrelenting Immediacy

*“In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…”*

Dear Friends,

In early February, I taught Genesis 1:1-5, about the first day of Creation, to a small group of children and youth on a Sunday morning. The above graphic was created in response to that story. The teenager who drew it may be a young prophet, as she sensed in the story the chaos our world is now experiencing.

Had I composed “March News” for GoTell somewhere around March 1 as was my intent, it would have reported on the Story Journey class Tom and I led at McKinley UMC for the University of Dayton Osher Life-Long Institute, and the Messiah of Peace class we planned to lead this Lent-Easter season. Or I might have written about the Sacred Stories program at the county jail in January-February and the House of Healing course planned for women there this Spring.

I might have told you about the mini-epic tellings planned for Good Friday at Dayton’s Grace UMC, or about the activities of the Scripture By Heart group at McKinley. Maybe I would have promoted the CinDay Guild event on resurrection stories planned for April in Cincinnati, or the 2020 Festival Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers here in Dayton.

Then everything changed and I haven’t known what to write. None of it seemed to matter anymore as everything got cancelled and catastrophe lurked just around the corner. We’re still holding out hope for the Festival Gathering, but that possibility seems more doubtful with each passing day.

Whatever happens, this child’s drawing reminds of how a wind from God is even now sweeping over the waters more powerfully than any virus spreading across the globe…

*“…while the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.”*

Mid-month, I read an article in Sunday’s New York Times about the 1964 Alaskan earthquake. It was the second most powerful earthquake recorded in world history. Sociologists from Ohio State University went to study the impact on people, and subsequently studied responses to disaster in other places around the world. A lot of what they found was actually very positive—about how, despite what they termed “elite panic” (government leaders fearing riots and mayhem) people don’t go crazy against each other; rather, compassion brings them together to work for the common good. Good news, very welcome.

From their studies of disasters the sociologists also reported, “an unrelenting immediacy sets in”—people live in the moment. The past and the future seem irrelevant. I could relate. This helped me understand why I had trouble composing the March GoTell News until this late date in the month.

Another graphic that came out of our learning the First Day of Creation story back in February reminds us that God is always seeking to bring order out of chaos and goodness out of void. The young woman who created the graphic below focused on how God saw the light that God called into being, and…

*“And God saw that the light was good.”*

For me, the graphics created in a small circle of children and youth, as we engaged the story of Genesis 1, connected this current moment of “unrelenting immediacy” to the ancient story of God’s love for Creation. The graphics, and the story, steadied my soul. I wonder, what signs of the Spirit sweeping over the waters have you witnessed? What is supporting your spirit during these days of earth-shaking?

Tell the Story,
Amelia