Pictured above: Kendi Moore following Mrs. McCleskey’s example and covering her head with a scarf during their first grade Bible lesson.

By: Bobby Scott, Headmaster Emeritus

I remember my son, now 36, used to bemoan the fact that nothing truly historical had happened in his lifetime, at least something that he could have experienced himself. He was a bit jealous that my experience as a teenager in the 1960s was so eventful: from the explosion of rock bands in neighborhood garages and on a Woodstock farm, to men actually walking on the moon, to the assassinations of a president and the unsurpassed leader for civil rights, to a war without a victor and unappreciated soldiers, to hiding under desks during school drills due to the threat of nuclear attack.

It has been almost 20 years since 9/11, certainly something people still recall, but nothing like what we are experiencing now in its scope and in its danger to all ages, all nations, and all races of people. The end may be in sight, or sadly, it may not.

Changes for a lifetime

More Americans have died now due to Covid-19 than in the Vietnam War and 9/11 combined - over 80,000. But it is not just about the tragic deaths. It is also about all the aspects of our lives that have changed so quickly and how our students will face the future. Schooling, jobs, travel, gatherings, sports, health care, entertainment, and church may be changed in some ways for their lifetime.

At this time of year in the past, I would have been leading our final school-wide chapel of the year, always looking forward to hearing from the students themselves about how the Truth we had memorized throughout the year had affected their lives … how God had transformed their minds, how they abided in the Vine, how they died to themselves, and how faith is believing even when we lack understanding.

In a survey my wife did for me via the Covenant Family Facebook page, I asked our students what good had come of being sheltered at home. Overwhelmingly, over 66% embraced the privilege of “time”:  no rush, no stress, no fixed schedule, special time with family, time to be alone, and appreciated “slowness.” I hope these answers mean there was little time at home for fear and anxiety about the future. Home needs to be a safe place.

Why Me?

But eventually our students will need to be asked the harder questions, in an age-appropriate way:

Why do you think this pandemic happened? Who is to blame? Why did God allow it? If we pray, won’t it go away? What has been your biggest loss due to it? How does that loss compare to those of a child in Syria or Italy or New York City? What if it comes back again or another one emerges? If we are the greatest country in the world, why are more people dying here? Why us? 

why not me?

That last question haunts me. For though I have lived longer than most all my readers, I still have a built-in demon of entitlement and supremacy … even a right to my time.

In the book of Ruth, when she lost her husband and all her possessions and had to leave her hometown, she immediately thought only about how to help her embittered mother-in-law. When the God of the Universe faced a tortuous cross, He thought only of washing the feet of twelve men, with whom He had been sheltered for three years, not sixty days! A day later, He died for those who deserted, denied, and delivered Him to murderers.

My brokenness lies in too often asking, “why me?” instead of, “why not me?”

The heart of humility, spoken and acted on by our students and teachers and parents, remains our covenant.

Like Ruth’s unentitled spirit helped transform Naomi, the Father has used this example to help transform us.

May our students forever embrace this truth and stay strong as they enter the next historical moment in their lives.