I stood at my bedroom window looking down into the silent street below. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Peru had been in lockdown for over two months already, and weariness had set in after the first week. 

What will people do when they finally get out?

My mind skipped back to my childhood in Ohio, when my dad would get a call from a neighboring veal farmer to pick up some calves that weren’t drinking their bottles fast enough. Although they were usually less than two weeks old, these babies had spent their entire lives in tiny pens just big enough to allow them to stand up or lie down. Until they arrived at our farm, they had never taken even one step. My dad would lift each calf down from the back of his pickup and carefully set it on its feet. I still remember the joy of watching them jump and skip across the pasture once they realized they were no longer caged.

I wondered if that’s how people would act when the quarantine ends and we can finally leave our houses. Will we run out to the sidewalks hugging friends and greeting neighbors? Will the kids begin impromptu soccer games in the streets? Will we go for long hikes on our favorite mountain trails? I have such great expectations for that day when we’ll finally be set free! 

But why set my sights only on the day when we can walk out the door into the street, which, by the way, will quickly fill up with dogs and trash and beeping horns and cars driving way too fast, and all of the other things that usually make me lose my patience? 

What would happen if I looked ahead with the same excitement to the day when we finally get to heaven? When we are reunited with family and friends who are already there? When we see Jesus? When we lay our crowns at his feet?

As I write this, we’re still quarantined. But I’m shifting my focus from the day we get out of this house to the day we’re truly set free and finally make it HOME!