Five years ago today, I became a Christian.
There were no many ceremonies – the lovely Anglican parish church in Brooklyn, me and the priest alone. Save God Himself, no one else was there. Covid-19 was coming to town.
“Dobby,” a friend texted me, “You might die. You need to accomplish this.” He wasn't wrong.
Have you ever seen time stay still? It looks like something from the “flash”. You are moving slowly, but everything around you stops. Or, it looks like the end of a zombie flick, but saves some survivors who are exposed on the street. It's creepy.
Spooky is how you explain that you are hearing the voicemail of one of your closest friends at university and saying goodbye. Spooky is a way to explain visiting that friend in a mental ward after a suicide attempt thankfully failing. Your blood will become cold, and the wall between life and death will certainly become very porous.
At that moment, you can see Hades. But I saw something else: God, Jesus Christ, call me to come to my new home. His house. Church.
I began to go to the Anglican Church in Brooklyn, which my best friend recommended to me. I have visited churches previously to enjoy the music and community. But before 2019, I became a parishioner, a Christian, and that never happened.
Former Orthodox Jews are not Christians. It's not about knocking people in the book. Christ and the apostles were Jews. But if today's Jewish companions want to be sharp, he becomes an atheist. If he wants to believe anything, he becomes a Buddhist. Christianity is generally away from the cultural radar.
But who says no? The vague belief in higher power was not the God I began to know again in new ways and love again. My time at the church, which I serve every Sunday, began to burn my faith in my soul like a cow brand. A few months later, I spoke to the president and decided to go on an Easter baptism. Then it was a Covid-19 hit.
“Devie,” a friend texted me. “You might die. You need to accomplish this.” That's not wrong, as he did. My disability is not only in a wheelchair, but it also weakens my lungs significantly. I almost died several times of pneumonia.
I texted the pastor and he agreed to be baptized on Sunday, March 22nd, 2020 in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. And that was the case. At the time of my appointment, I moved around into the small side chapel and about an hour later Christian came out.
That night, the governor of New York placed the city under a stay-at-home order. The next day I woke up to a bad case of Covid-19. The world hurts. The city was still there. But I was alive and in His grace.
Two years later I will be identified as a Roman Catholic and will truly be at home. But that's another day.
