Don't say we haven't been warned

Clad in a cloth robe, body irrevocably thinned by stage four oral cancer, the man shuffled to the bathroom behind his walker.

Steadying him on the short journey was his wife of 56 years.

Self-reliant and independent, he didn't want the help.

Truth be told, the man was a bit brusque in his final months with his devoted spouse.

No doubt his impatience had little to do with her but with his own weakness.

As he crossed the threshold from one room to the next behind the aluminum contraption holding him upright, the man stopped his walker.

"Wait," he instructed.

His wife and oldest child stopped in their tracks and movement ceased.

It was an order.

The man reached up and turned off the light of the room he was leaving.

My cancer-stricken father lost his fight to a dreaded disease more than six years ago.

Dad, even in the late stages of his illness, had a deep and abiding respect for how much things cost, like electricity.

He and my mother nearly moved to West Virginia, a neighboring low-cost state, because their local utility had raised prices so much.

He grew up a Depression-era kid in Pittsburgh, with eight siblings, in the home of a coal miner-turned-carpenter, in a house with walls so thin, snowflakes made it through to the inside.

Be careful with your money, my dad used to say.

It was advice I've tried to heed.

Behind the advice, I knew, was a warning.

Being without money is a very bad thing in American society.

A bad thing anywhere.

We ignore worthwhile warnings to our peril.

In the vivid imagery of Ezekiel, we see the Lord being quoted, "...turn from your ways and live! Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel!"

Not fake news. Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 11.

Israel and Judah largely ignored the warning, scholars agree, and both nations spent many years in captivity and exile.

Many never saw home again.

Some died.

We have been warned to take precautions in this current pandemic.

Stay at home.

Wash our hands.

Disinfect surfaces.

Mask your mouth and wear gloves if you must venture out from your home.

I could waste valuable paragraphs recounting the slow response of the American government to the coronavirus.

But what's done is done.

Let's keep this at the level of you and me.

We're all in it now but some still don't seem to have the message.

The other day, I had to venture out for some needed supplies.

Yes, we've had grocery deliveries made to the house since my wife and I are in the higher-risk age demographics and on top of this, I have pre-existing medical conditions.

But we needed supplies quickly so I stopped at a supermarket in Cape County, which will remain unnamed.

Sporting a high-quality mask procured from our health clinic and wearing latex gloves, I ventured inside for one of the briefest shopping excursions of my memory.

Two male employees were outside the store, ensuring folks entered by one door and kept at least six feet apart.

Those twin sentinels at the gate, though, were unmasked and ungloved. What? Are you kidding me?

Inside, perhaps 20 percent of the patrons and employees were similarly attired.

Just another day in the store, huh?

For those who don't get it, as Israel and Judah didn't in their day millennia ago, this pandemic is not just about you. You could be asymptomatic and could pass COVID-19 to me or to someone else.

Call it media hysteria if you must.

But why not err on the side of caution?

This thing is an unseen klller.

Jesus might weigh in here on the weekend following Easter:

"What I say to you I say to all: 'Be on the alert'!" (Mark 13:37/NASB)