March 13

Friday:  I had no grandchildren today, so I worked on making a few cards. This picture and quote was used on one of the cards I made today! I love George Macdonald's writings very much, and I especially love this quote.

Something pretty unprecedented occurred today. You see, in the last month (or perhaps 6-8 weeks), there has been a new virus identified in the world: COVID-19, which is being referred to as the coronavirus. It started in Wuhan, China in November but for some reason the outbreak was "covered up" and we never heard about anything alarming until about mid-January here in the USA, AND we had no reported cases until two weeks ago (I think). 

But as of today, we have the virus in 21 states--something like 1600 cases and 40 deaths. The governor of Michigan announced today that all schools K-12 will be closed until April 6 (that's three full weeks). In my lifetime, nothing has occurred like this in Michigan. People are afraid and many are rather panicked, which is sad. 

I went grocery shopping yesterday (as usual) at Meijer's and for the first time in my life I found the toilet paper aisle EMPTY. No kidding! Good thing I have an adequate supply. 

With the governor's announcement of school closings, I think she also announced a ban on all public meetings with greater than 200 people; consequently, most of the larger churches in Grand Rapids have cancelled Sunday services. Calvary emailed that they will do an online service. Wow. 

I am glad that I am unafraid of this "thing" mostly because I am not afraid of dying ... ONLY because Jesus already died--and not only did He die, but He came to life again conquering death forever. But I do think it is a good thing to look out for our neighbors and not be unkind to people who are truly freaked out about this thing. Sigh. How weird it feels to have a world-wide, a global pandemic. Science ficture is not my favorite genre by a long shot, but I'm pretty sure people have written fiction that is matching what I am seeing today. Pretty remarkable.