Please celebrate safely this holiday weekend

Easter Sunday is a day that should be marked by celebrations of faith and family, but this year, we are being asked to do something difficult.

We’re being asked to hold off on the traditions we are accustomed to, the gatherings at church and with our loved ones.

Those are two the places we turn to in the most trying times, and these are certainly trying times.

It’s one of the hardships that make the situation we are facing here, and across our nation, so profoundly difficult.

That as we struggle with a health crisis, personal crisis, financial crisis, we can’t seek comfort in the places we normally find it, our church buildings and the homes of our loved ones.

But that doesn’t mean that support isn’t still available.

Many of our area churches are finding new ways to reach their congregations that still maintain the safety of social distancing, which continues to be of the utmost importance right now.

Our family and friends are available in more ways than ever, through phone, text and video chat.

It’s not the same thing as a hug from your mother or a pat on the back from a friend. It’s not the same thing as a smile from a neighboring pew shared by longtime friends.

But it is what helps keep those you love safe right now.

It means that soon, we hope very soon, we can come back together physically with all of the people we care about and we will have literally helped save lives by the simple action of staying home.

We know the temptation is real this weekend, to take a few more steps toward the normalcy we’re all longing for.

But we’re asking all of our friends and neighbors to hang in there a little longer.