Year Four, Day 307, Pandemic Times Day 56: "Stay Home - Stay Safe" Day 43: Introspect

Psalm 95 New King James Version (NKJV)

A Call to Worship and Obedience

"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
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Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
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For the Lord is the great God,

And the great King above all gods.
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[a]In His hand are the deep places of the earth;

The heights of the hills are His also.
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The sea is His, for He made it;

And His hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
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For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep [b]of His hand.

Today, if you will hear His voice:

“Do not harden your hearts, as in the [c]rebellion,

As in the day of [d]trial in the wilderness,

When your fathers tested Me;

They tried Me, though they saw My work.

For forty years I was [e]grieved with that generation,

And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,

And they do not know My ways.’

So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

Yesterday, after I visited with you via video, I decided to go, once again to the store. I needed to pick up some Mother's Day cards. I had my face mask and surgical gloves with me. I also needed to deposit a check. So I hopped on the Vine towards Vancouver Mall.

It was surreal debussing at the Vancouver Mall transit center. The Mall has been closed for at least 40 days, during the Stay Home mandate. In front of Macy's, on the west side of the mall, the parking lot was eerily vacant. But in the parking lot on the south side, a large section was roped off for RV's and cars for overnight sleepers. Basically houseless individuals. They had a security guard roaming the perimeter and porta-potties set up.

I wonder where they will go when the mall opens back up? It was all very peaceful and orderly, but gave me the chills. It felt like quite apocolyptic.