It is a Sunday morning in early October and I have tuned into an online service for a church that I used to attend. A friend has asked me to virtually join her, so that we can participate together, albeit apart.
The service is being broadcast from the church building. Numbers are limited to about one quarter capacity. Chairs are spaced out to allow households to sit two metres apart. Face masks are compulsory. Corporate singing is banned. When the camera spans the room, it looks sparse.
It’s not how I like to do church, but it will have to do during this strange season, and at least I can sing my heart out at home.
Mid-way through the service, the new curate is invited onto the platform and asked to introduce himself. (For my readers who are not Anglicans, a ‘curate’ is a member of the church leadership team, who is an assistant vicar in training.)
A man in his thirties bounds up to the microphone, stands at a safe social distance from the interviewer, and removes his face mask. He seems eager to answer questions.
It’s the day after he has been ordained, by the local bishop, in a special ceremony at the city’s cathedral – a rite of passage that marks the formal commencement of his curacy in this particular church.
“Please tell us what happened at your ordination,” the interviewer invites – and what follows is a powerful and unexpected lightthroughthecracks story.
***
Back in March, at the beginning of lockdown, the curate tells us that he caught Coronavirus and contracted COVID-19. Even after the initial symptoms abated, he was laid low for months, plagued in particular by a long lasting ‘brain fog’.
“I was unable to think clearly or focus properly,” he explains. “My memory wasn’t what it should have been. I just really didn’t feel myself.”
During the ordination service, the bishop laid hands on his head, and blessed him in the name of Jesus. Instantly, he felt the ‘brain fog’ lift and completely disappear.
“I feel like a new man, and my wife is delighted,” he tells us. “She says she’s got her husband back.”
It seems the bishop was just as shocked as the curate, at such instantaneous healing, and the sparse congregation, gathered in the building, burst into spontaneous applause.
***
Should we really be so surprised?
I have shared, elsewhere on this blog, various stories of hope and healing in this season of COVID-19 – and I am sure there will be many more to come.
Who do you know who has been impacted by COVID-19, directly or indirectly? Who do you know who has experienced, or is experiencing, ‘brain fog’? If you are a Christian, how prepared are you to pray for their blessing, and healing, in the name of Jesus? And if you’re not a Christian, why don’t you invite a Christian into the situation to pray for a breakthrough?
I would love to hear what happens, in the comments below.
4 Comments
Just encouraging to hear how God is in action, even during what must be one of the most challenging years that humankind, as a global entity, has experienced for a while!
Thanks Sini! I’m glad you’ve been encouraged by this story. God is definitely at work in this pandemic, and I’ll continue to share any stories I come across which show us how.
As more and more people face ‘long-Covid’ symptoms, I’m sure there is an increasing need for fog-lifting prayers. Thanks for encouraging us to pray those prayers!
Thanks Betty Boo! I’m sure that those with ‘long-Covid’ symptoms would relish all the prayers they can get.