Don’t touch that!  You don’t know where it’s been! 

I suppose even the most fastidious child has heard those words from a parent at one time or another.  Children, it seems, are slow to comprehend the germ theory of illness.  That’s OK.  They’ve got us keeping eye out for them, watching with horror as they reach for orphaned items in parking lots and grocery store aisles.

I don’t mind being the scolder, but I am less keen on being the scoldee.  Every time I open the paper someone is telling me not to touch handrails or door knobs (which flies in the face of not only habit but the design and purpose of these items).  “Don’t touch your face!”  There, I’ve done it; now I have an irresistible urge to rub my weary, watery eyes.

I’m pretty laissez faire about my health maintenance (have you seen the size of me?) but even I am using the sleeve of my coat to push elevator buttons at hospitals.

Everything we are learning about the transmissibility of the COVID 19 virus reminds us that we live within a web of relationships. 

It’s funny that it is often the bad stuff that reminds us how we are connected to each other.  We see the effects of sin filter through generations and across communities from sources they have never met.  We learn how even in our insular lives we really are vulnerable to the germs of people halfway around the world.

Maybe this is also a good time to remember that the love and care that created us also connects us, especially as members of the Body of Christ.

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”  (1 Corinthians 12:26)

Prayer:  Creator God, you have made all things to live in unity and harmony.  Fill our hearts with joy, not fear, as we remember our connections to one another.  Amen.