We hear people on TV talk about the new normal. This seems to be related to the changes brought on by the virus pandemic. I’m a little puzzled about what the “old normal” might have been. When I was a child, a once week bath with a washing up sponge bath in between was normal. Now if I miss a shower every day I feel unclean even with a sponge bath. Saturday meant a cheap matinee at the movie theater if I was lucky since there was no TV at our house. Even when TV arrived, there was a mountain shadow on the black and white screen which hindered our watching. As a college student it was normal for the only computer on campus to take up a whole room. Normal when our children came along meant riding in the car and didn’t involve a safe car seat. Normal as a pastor meant using a mimeograph machine, not a copier. My first teaching experience still used a spirit duplicator. People from Japan and China were described as Orientals rather than Asians. The Sioux or Apache were Indians not Native Americans. Black was just starting to replace Negro as a term of respect. Normal is constantly changing. Usually those changes are somewhat subtle and slower. This “new normal” came on us so suddenly that it is far more noticeable and the restrictions that it brought are more annoying. The next several months probably will bring a new “new normal.” We will deal with the changes as they occur. Together we will get through them as we have in the past. We know that God will be with us as God was with us in the past. That is our normal whether old or new.