personal reflection from matthew

NEVER ALONE: PERSONAL REFLECTION FROM MATTHEW DELLA FORESTA 

I caught Covid-19 and it landed me in quarantine for 19 days. 

3 days were in hospital and 16 days at home. 

Let’s just say it hit me hard. 

While I’m writing this, I find It difficult to re-live this ordeal because I hate to replay the pain, but a few thoughts come to mind that I do want to share with you. 

“Never Alone” this kept playing in my mind over and over and over. I was constantly saying “Never Alone”. The reality was… I felt alone. 

I was alone in the special containment room for COVID-19 cases in my home-town hospital. 

I was alone in the ambulance that transferred me to a larger hospital in the city. 

I was alone in a room on the COVID-19 floor of that hospital. 

I was alone in my bedroom. 

It reminded me of when I lived alone in my early years of pastoring, away from the home where I grew up, away from childhood friends and family. I knew isolation and loneliness then. At times it was crushing… and now some of those same feelings found me in a different way. 

COVID-19 brought quarantine, isolation and loneliness to so many of us and without an end it seems. We all know what to do now – stand here, wait here, go there, don’t go there, wash your hands, cover your face, don’t touch your face. To your room and don’t come out until… it sounds like a punishment doesn’t it? It felt like a punishment to me too. ‘Just Stay Home’…But what if you don’t have a home? 

It made me think of stories and the context of lepers in the Bible. These were the real people of quarantine. They had to isolate from the larger community, including family and friends, and were forced to live outside the main parts of society. As they walked, they had to call out “unclean” telling others to stand back. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? 

We have experienced this kind of thing before, just in other ways. Not everyone has felt the symptoms or the effects of COVID-19 or other types of health-related attacks on their body, but we have all experienced what it’s like to be viewed as the “other” or to be the “outsider”. We’ve all felt some kind of rejection. We have all felt alone! 

We may know what it’s like, or know people who know what’s it’s like, to have a chronic illness, to be abandoned, to spend time in jail, to live on their own in a low-income situation. People often distance themselves from these kinds of circumstances, but Jesus didn’t. HE got close. Real close. Close enough to touch and heal. Essential workers and frontline staff have to get close too. 

I was alone, but doctors, nurses, x-ray technicians, paramedics, nutrition and cleaning staff helped me. 

I was alone, but my wife and kids kept me nourished and would visit at my door. 

I was alone, but God prompted people to pray for me, some without knowing what had happened. 

I was alone, but God spoke to a young boy in a dream so my wife, kids and I would be reassured that I was going to recover. 

The truth is, I felt so weak at different points that I found myself talking to God about Heaven. This scripture sustained me through this experience, and I hope it brings comfort to you too! 

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3 CSB 

The God of many rooms was also in the room with me! Every day, at every moment, no matter what kind of quarantine we are experiencing – our loving Heavenly Father is with us. Our determined Saviour, Jesus is with us. Our caring comforter, the Holy Spirit, is with us! 

When we face our next challenge, and we will, remember – We are Never Alone!