One highlight for me during the past year was the virtual InScribe Fall Conference. I didn't attend past conferences because of my difficulty in finding transportation and the cost of a hotel.
What a joy it was to see the faces of writers whom I had only known from their e-mail messages. I know that face-to-face meetings would have worked better for many folks but I loved staying home and avoiding all the bother of travel.
No doubt, the early Christians would have loved to have met virtually. It allows conversations to happen in real time. Back then, letters took months to travel to their recipients. As we read in 2 John 1:12 and 13 (Bible in Basic English), "Having much to say to you, it is not my purpose to put it all down with paper and ink: but I am hoping to come to you, and to have talk with you face to face, so that your joy may be full."
And though we can't touch one another, we can at least blow virtual, holy kisses. As Paul instructed in Romans 16:16 (BBE), "Give one another a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send their love to you."
Before COVID-19, we gave each other holy hugs. We can't do that at present but we may do so again if these lock-downs end in our lifetimes. Even so, those with computers and tablets can use apps to virtually visit each other.
Imagine doing online what James 1:27 (BBE) describes. "The religion which is holy and free from evil in the eyes of our God and Father is this: to take care of children who have no fathers and of widows who are in trouble, and to keep oneself untouched by the world."
But there will be one visitor who won't need electronic gadgets to visit us. In fact, we won't want or need anything this world can give us. We read in 2 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17 (BBE) why that will be. "Because the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a word of authority, with the voice of the chief angel, with the sound of a horn: and the dead in Christ will come to life first; Then we who are still living will be taken up together with them into the clouds to see the Lord in the air: and so will we be for ever with the Lord." Amen!
