Mourning over the loss of in-person church services

Do you mourn over the loss of in-person church services?  If so, you're not alone.  But my question is actually more about the mourning.  The process.  The reasons why you mourn.  That's because the Bible actually gives us lessons, of a sort, on how and why to mourn.  They're in one of those Old Testament books that we don't really like to read.  

Lamentations is all about mourning.  Grieving.  All the gory details of what happened to Jerusalem, Judah, Zion, the Israelites when they were defeated by Nebuchadnezzar and sent into exile.  

I believe they can help us today as well,
with COVID and the loss of in-person church services.

No, that's not happening today. Although, I did write a piece titled, Is Covid-19 a modern-day Exile?

And even though many scholars say Lamentations was specific to the Old Testament exile and there's little, if anything, for us today, I believe that's selling God short. Think about it. As Christians, we believe all Scripture was God-breathed. Everything in our Bible is there for a reason. And history, even if it has no other possible reason, is always there as a warning for us.

Remember the saying, "those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it". Even Paul gave us a version of that, in his first letter to the church in Corinth.

Warnings From Israel’s History

1Co 10:1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.

1Co 10:6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.