You already know that I’m not good with numbers, so I have no idea how many days we’ve been doing this COVID-19 thing. What I do know is – it’s more than any of us would like it to be.

I am sitting in amazement, though, at how God has prepared us for times such as these. For instance, just a few years ago grocery delivery was for the elite. Now it’s for everybody. (Except me. I can’t bring myself to do that yet. I like the grocery store. I like choosing my own produce. I may have to change my ways in the future, but not yet.)

Friday of last week I donned my mask and gloves and went to Publix. That was before it was advised that everyone wear masks in public, so it seems I was a little ahead of the times for a change. About a third of us were dressed the same. How embarrassing! Seriously, I was impressed at how kind and considerate everyone was. Publix has for its motto – Where Shopping is a Pleasure. It was a pleasure, but it was weird.

I color coded my hand-written grocery list so that I would not have to make return trips to an aisle I had already gone down. I was greeted by signs in the dairy department – one item of each kind per customer. I picked up a gallon of milk for my neighbor and a half-gallon for us. The Publix people were happy to let me do that after I explained why.

I opted out of help to my car (if you don’t have a Publix, you wouldn’t know that helping you to your car and loading groceries for you is part of their service, with no tipping their policy). When I peeled those gloves off of my sweaty hands, I thought about all of the health care people and other services where folks have to wear gloves all the time. I’m thankful for them all. (I was also thankful that I keep a small towel in my car so I could dry my hands and not have them slipping all over the steering wheel.)

On returning home, I set up a table in the garage and wiped down everything before it was allowed in the house. Some things I left in the garage for later. Honestly, it was simpler grocery shopping with toddlers, but I didn’t mind taking the extra precautions.

One reason for the extra precautions is that my mom lives with us. Bob and I are getting up there, but she is officially “up there.” (Again, full disclosure, I probably would go the extra mile of caution anyway; but having Mom with us helps me not get made fun of by my husband.)

Speaking of Mom. She has witnessed many things firsthand in her lifetime.  She was born in 1928 (she’s 92). Some of the firsts are, in no particular order:

• Air-conditioned houses and cars
• Televisions in homes and then color television
• WW II
• Microwave ovens
• Cell phones
• The internet
• Man walking on the moon
• Man-made satellites and a space station
• Personal computers
• Vinyl records, 4 track cassettes, 8 track cassettes, cassette tapes, CDs, downloading music
• VCRs, Betamax, DVDs, Bluerays, streaming of movies and the like
• Cameras have gone from little brownie box cameras to cameras on our phones
• Fluoroscent light bulbs, LED bulbs, Smart bulbs
• Google, Youtube, Facebook, Amazon (including the Echo Alexa that sits in her room, which she uses to sing along with her favorite hymns)
• Hawaii and Alaska become states
• And now a pandemic

Ten years before she was born, there was the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Mom has been through a lot – even polio as a kid and waiting to see if her brother who was a POW in Germany in WW II would return home (he did). And now she’s going through social distancing during the current pandemic.

It’s a privilege for me to witness her adapting and marveling at the technology which I can almost take for granted. Here’s a few shots of her doing just that:

Mom watching my sister and her son sing during their on-line church service in Georgia

Mom attending the Zoom meeting of her Tuesday morning Bible study

In a day when in a sense we are all shut-ins, my 92-year-old mom lives a life of thankfulness for the things she has and the things God set in place ahead of time for such a time as this. God bless you all and keep on looking up!