Covid-19: Living in limbo

Mary found Jesus; we can find hope

Architects use the phrase “liminal spaces” to describe places of transition. They are the spaces we occupy when we are moving from where we have been to where we are going. Thresholds, hallways and waiting rooms are all examples of liminal spaces.

In recent years, psychologists, philosophers and theologians have also begun using this same phrase. Liminal spaces are not just literal places in a house or building; they are also seasons of life. Liminality can be an emotional and psychological experience. When we go through this, it feels like the circumstances of life have thrust us from where we once were, but we have not yet arrived at where we will be. Life is in limbo.

When we are in these kinds of transitions, our feelings can be mixed. We might feel nostalgic about what we have left behind. Or, depending on the circumstances, we might feel relief that we are moving on. When we don’t know what the future holds, we might approach it with fear and anxiety. Or some of us might more commonly feel excitement and hope about an unknown future. I would guess that most of us feel all of these emotions in some mixture.

It seems to me that we are currently living in a liminal space. The covid-19 pandemic has forced many of us into a transition that we had not anticipated. It is likely that life will not and cannot go back to what it was like before. There will be no return to normal. For some, that is sad and to be grieved, while others might be quite happy to be moving on from a “normal” that was oppressive and difficult.

But we also don’t know what life is going to be on the other side of this pandemic. And that can be scary. How long will this last? Will I have a job when it’s over? How can I go on if I lose a loved one? These are the kinds of questions that can keep us up at night.

This pandemic is a liminal space, a limbo in which we find ourselves.

Since I am a pastor who tries to make sense of life through biblical narratives, I am finding much comfort in the midst of this liminal space by thinking about an encounter that happened in another one. A few weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, we read the story of Mary Magdalene visiting the garden tomb in which she expected to find the body of Jesus. But his body was not there. As she tried to figure out what was going on, she noticed a gardener in the garden. It turned out that it was no gardener at all, but Jesus himself.

I’ve come to think of that garden around the tomb of Jesus as a liminal space. Life as Mary had known it was over, but she had no idea what it was going to be like next. Yet in the midst of that transition, she encountered the divine, the hope and love embodied by Jesus. My prayer for all of us during the liminal space of covid-19 is that we will do the same. Robb Ryerse is a pastor at Vintage Fellowship in Fayetteville. He is the author of the new book Running for Our Lives: A Story of Faith, Politics, and the Common Good. He can be reached at robb@vintagefellowship.org.