ADDRESS: 2601 Chestnut Ave, Glenview, IL 60026
EMAIL: contact@chestnutsquare.info
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ADDRESS: 2601 Chestnut Ave, Glenview, IL 60026
EMAIL: contact@chestnutsquare.info
Dear Chestnut Square Residents, Families and Staff,
“Perfect love casts out all fear”
1 John 4:18
“Can you feel the love tonight?
It is where you are…”
Elton John (The Lion King)
As we prepare to celebrate Passover, Holy Week and Easter, we will hear the story of a liberating God who acted in history to lead the Hebrew people from bondage to freedom and we will hear the retelling of the story of God’s acting to bring new life out of death through the mystery of the resurrection. Perhaps these stories will come to us through live streamed versions on TV or computers. Maybe we will join with our communities of faith through ZOOM.
However we participate in these Holy Days, it will be different than we have ever experienced before. Most of us will be behind closed doors, separated from family and communities of faith, maintaining our distance from those we love when all we really want is to be together to break bread, to celebrate the rituals that bind us together and to embrace one another in love.
As our leaders remind us of Pearl Harbor and September 11th in speaking about the suffering still to come from the pandemic, we may feel fear rising in our hearts. In the Bible the phrase “fear not” is used at least 80 times. I can only imagine that this is the case because fear is a natural human reaction to suffering and uncertainty. Our ancestors were afraid before they got to the promised land. Jesus was afraid in the Garden of Gethsemane. And we may be afraid as we wonder what lies ahead.
In times like these, God reminds us that perfect love casts out all fear, binds us together in love, unites us in profound ways and infuses us with the gift of hope. Passover and Easter will be different this year. It will be different in our Chestnut Family and it will be different for family members and staff celebrating in our own homes. We may experience moments of fear and anxiety, but we will pull together in love even as we are forced to be apart.
We may remember traditions of the past and we are invited to create new traditions. We will be comforted by the stories of our ancestors and we will create new experiences and have new stories to tell next year and in the years ahead. We will feel the love of family and friends as we both send and receive it from the safety of our homes. We will stay home to save lives and we will be reminded that the love that casts out all fear is the same love that we can feel wherever we are and no matter how far apart we are.
In my family, we will log into ZOOM on Easter Sunday to raise our glasses in celebration of the Resurrection. We may wear our Easter hats (I will have to find one). We may sing (not sure who will participate). I am not sure what else is on the agenda for this new way of gathering. We are still in the planning stages. However long we are together in this new way and whatever else we do, I am certain we will offer a toast. We will raise our glasses in gratitude for our immediate family, our extended families (in particular, the Chestnut Family), our communities, our country and our world and we will remember that we are all in this together.
How will you celebrate Passover and Easter this year? What new traditions will you create this year? What new stories will you have to tell next year?
We are all in this together. My prayer is that as we move through this together, we will all be strengthened by the perfect love that casts out all fear and that we will feel that love wherever we are on Passover and Easter. My hope is that we will find new ways to celebrate our traditions and that we will all have new stories to tell when this is over and next year when we gather for a Chestnut Square Passover and Easter Sunday Brunch face-to-face with family and friends.
Until then, may we all “feel the love” and share the love from the safety of our homes—together—even when we are forced to be apart.
Sunny Lopez
President/CEO
Bethany Methodist
Chestnut Square at The Glen
Partners in Healthcare
Partners in Home Healthcare
ADDRESS: 2601 Chestnut Ave, Glenview, IL 60026 | PHONE: 847 998 1118 | EMAIL: contact@chestnutsquare.info