This Easter Sunday was different than any one I can remember in my lifetime, and I’m sure many of you feel the same way.
A day that would usually be marked by church attendance and spending time with family was this year intruded upon by the outbreak of COVID-19.
Some of you may have still spent time with family and watched a virtual church service, but still, this year had a different feel to it.
As I’m sure you have noticed, many yards around our county and the surrounding areas were adorned with a wooden cross this week. Even if we couldn’t congregate and worship in our normal sense, we still found a way to remember the meaning behind Holy Week: the death and resurrection of Christ.
These crosses were more than just mere decoration. They showed a solidarity within our community to not allow this virus or anything else beyond our control to take our focus off of the Savior, especially in the Easter season.
These crosses showed that while this pandemic has rattled our cages and temporarily changed many aspects of our lives, there is One who is greater than any pandemic or disaster, and He is in control.
This past week also was different for me in another aspect. Melba Casey, wife of Vardaman mayor James Marshall Casey, passed away, leaving a hole in our town and church community.
Since this outbreak has also changed the way we hold funerals and pay our respects to the families of those who have passed, attending a typical visitation and funeral were out of the question for most of us.
Still, that didn’t stop Vardaman from showing its care in this time of sorrow for the Casey family.
Staying within the guidelines of social distancing, people lined Main Street and the roads leading to Hillcrest Cemetery in Vardaman as the family and hearse drove by en route to the graveside service.
Standing on Main Street in front of my church, First Baptist Church Vardaman, I realized that much like the displaying of the crosses in our yards this week, this town was showing its resolve to still pay our respects to a cherished family in our community when they had lost a loved one.
Once again, the virus may change how we have to do everyday activities, but it can’t stop us from showing love, whether that be to our Savior or our friends and family.
James Marshall, or simply “Casey,” as he is known by many, is a dear friend to my family and me. When I first joined the choir at my church, he took me under his wing and helped me learn how to sing bass.
I still don’t claim to be very good at it, but some of my best memories over the last seven years revolve around him and my family singing in the choir or around a piano in church. He and his family are good people, and they need your prayers in this time.
Speaking of music, I was reminded this week of a song by the Gaither Vocal Band entitled “When Jesus Says It’s Enough.” That song came out in 1995, three years before I was born, but my father and I spent many hours listening to that album, so its words are engrained in my memory.
The song tells the story of Matthew 8:23-27 when Jesus and his disciples are on the sea and a great storm blows up.
The disciples, as we are also prone to do, panic and awaken Jesus who was asleep on the boat. Jesus said in verse 26, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” and then rebuked the storm, and it was calm.
The Gaither Vocal Band says it this way: “I’ve had my share of trouble and trials, and sometimes the going gets rough, but when Jesus says it’s enough, it’ll be enough.”
Christ cares for us, even when it appears the world is turned upside down, much like it is now. Jesus knows the difficulty that we are facing with this pandemic and the difficulty that the Vardaman community is facing with Mrs. Melba’s passing, but just like He was in control of the storm on the Sea of Galilee, He is in control of our situation as well, and He’ll soon speak “peace.”
Happy (late) Easter, everyone. I hope you found encouragement this week like I did.