By Brenda Scantlebury, May 7, 2020 — The best day of my quarantine started last week and what happened was [that] I had been in the house for all these days and weeks and I had been going out from time to time. Sometimes I was going to the local neighborhood grocery, picking up things, and so on, so. That’s my time for getting outside and getting some fresh air and exercise. But last week some of my neighbors were right outside my door and they were really talking loud. And I went to my door and I opened it and looked outside and it was like a party going on. And I said, “Wow… no mask.” You know, everybody just chatting and talking, and the kids were up and down our street and they were playing and some were throwing a football, had a little football game going on. Some were skating, some of the little girls was jumping rope. It was like a normal day that would be on the weekend except that it was a weekday.
I have some little friends here on my street there, some of the little neighbor kids there, because I do arts and crafts and stuff with them. When the weather’s warm, outside my door on the steps there. So when they saw me they ran, “Miss Brenda, Miss Brenda! Can we color, can we color, can we color??” So I said to them, “I would like to but we have to do it at another time.” Because with children it’s hard, they don’t fully understand what’s going on, and you try to explain to them about what’s going on at their level, but of course, they were disappointed. But they know I’ll do that with them, because they usually come and sit on my steps, and I put things outside there that we can do – collages, and they color and do different things like that with them and they like to do that.
And one of my neighbors came with food for me and they placed it on my steps and I said I’m so thankful. During this time here because we know this is a hard time – I’m just glad for the kindnesses that we are showing, one to the other. It’s a time for families spending more time together, because during our busy time there’s not a lot of time with some families and people because of the kind of work that they do and a lot of them spend many hours at work and by the time that they get home it’s like dinner, and then the kids go to bed and then they’re up in the morning and back to the daily grind. So this time is like a respite from the busyness of peoples’ lives that you can sit down and have time to be together and do things together. Even though we’re going through this time of crisis right now, I thank God for the good things that we are benefitting by them. And also thankful for the prayers that are going forth and by the way, if you didn’t know, today is a national day of prayer.
But I’m thankful for every day. The bible says and Jesus tells us that we should pray, and pray one for the other. So I’m thankful for the prayers that have gone forth, not only for our individual self or our families collectively as a group but for everyone that’s concerned for the people that’s on the front lines, and the nurses, the doctors, people that work in the hospitals and institutions, you know the EMS workers, the people in the grocery stores, the drivers of the trucks that bring our food and produce from the farms and bring them to the grocery stores where we can get them. But even for the farmers, because now the farmers are not able to get their products and produce to the market, and they’re giving it away. So a lot of the food banks that have food and any of us that are partaking of this food, are coming from the farmers. And that’s a good thing, for the people that are not able to work right now, and they’re on furlough and even some of those that have lost their jobs. So I’m just thankful for that God is providing for us. And thank God even for the stimulus that some of us have gotten already or some that haven’t gotten, they will soon get. It’s a help. And so I’m thankful that even though something is negative that the Lord is working it out in our lives for good. And I thank God for the prayer because even those people that have lost family members – myself and some others have been praying for their families that God will come to their hearts because it’s not an easy thing to lose somebody that you love whether they are related by blood or by bond. I’m thankful that God is the one that can comfort our hearts.
The best thing that I’m thankful for happened last Monday. One of my sons did not feel good and he went to the ER early Monday morning. And he had a temperature. The thing that I’m grateful for was that he was later released that afternoon and thank God that he came walking back through the door and I’m throwing up my hands and say thank you Jesus, hallelujah! Glory to God.
I just want to say in spite of the constant reports of the coronavirus and the deaths that we’re hearing- not only in our cities and our nation and the world at large, that God is the creator and the promoter of life. Though it seems dark, and we’re going through this dark time right now, the good thing is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And that’s what I would like to say about the best day of my quarantine so far. And may God bless all of you and your families. Amen.