Corona, A Gift from God ?
Do you ever look at what is going on with this Covid-19 event and think to yourself, “this seems strange. Something just seems a little weird or unusual.” Just two days ago I was watching footage of all the chaos that is occurring in India with all of their homeless population because so many businesses have been shut down. In the large cities in India, the workers live in the factory and are fed by the business. There are millions and millions of employees getting thrown out into the streets to fend for themselves. They are also being prohibited from leaving the city in which they are working to get to their own homes, sometimes hundreds of miles away. Watching the masses of people in protests moving as waves was startling. It was almost like a scene from a movie. All I could think about was how much virus was being spread among the hungry throngs of humanity.
Clearly the hand of God is involved in all of this, but the thing that is so unusual is that the entire planet is being thrust headlong into this problem. It is a rare global event. I can’t think about anything in my own lifetime that rivals this kind of disruption to our daily lives that is impacting the whole world. Practically speaking the closest thing I could come up with was inflation or the opec embargo in the 1970s but that didn’t really cause the kind of suffering, pain and disruption to our daily lives as the Corona virus.
The only thing that could be considered remotely close to this would be World War 2. Though that lasted for years and the death toll was far greater than what we can expect with this virus. What about the AIDS epidemic? It was definitely global, but it really didn’t touch our lives personally because it seemed to impact specific groups. That epidemic had an impact on me personally in my training as a physician because we were in the brunt of that disease when I was in medical school. Half of the patients that I was taking care of in my clinical rotation in Internal Medicine had full blown AIDS and all of them died. The majority were young men in their twenties and thirties.
To me the important thing to learn from this that can help us try to get through it is the idea of the sovereignty of God. Either God is allowing this event to occur or he isn’t. Either God is in control of this event or he isn’t. We don’t choose to believe in God and his sovereignty because it makes us feel better as the atheists and non- believers continually like to accuse us of. We believe that God is sovereign and he is in control because it is truth. Truth is the way things really are. We believe Jesus when he tells us that God’s will and God’s plan is perfect. He knows what is best for us. He knows the best plan for our lives. Look at what Pastor John Piper tells us in this quote,
Therefore, God not only comprehends the coronavirus; he has purposes for it. God does nothing, and permits nothing, without wise purposes. Nothing just happens. Everything flows from the eternal counsels of God (Ephesians 1:11). All of it is wisdom. All of it is purposeful. For those who trust Jesus Christ, all of it is kindness. For others, it is a merciful wake-up call: “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17).
Kindness? Yup, kindness. Think about the most painful circumstances in your life when you learned some of the most important ideas with regard to your spiritual growth. Most of the time those growth spurts were because of pain and suffering. But you wouldn’t change those for the world and you are grateful for those painful experiences. I know I am. If I hadn’t had those painful, harsh circumstances, I would still be wasting, time, money and energy on worthless ideas or pursuits. Things that have absolutely no value. Plus I would have missed out on all the valuable revelations, gifts, impressions and experiences that come from a growing thriving relationship with Jesus.
God is in control in all of this and his purpose is much bigger than our tiny brains can comprehend. Our solace is in the fact that he loves us. We have faith and we trust in him. This may also be a wake up call to the many who are spending the majority of their time and energy on things that have been totally taken away, like sports or movies or other forms of entertainment. This is a prime opportunity for everyone to get a better view of the big picture. The most important things in this life are loving God and loving others, as Jesus told us.
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
(Matthew 22:34-37 NLT)
We have been given a very important and valuable gift. The opportunity to spend time loving God with all our hearts, soul and mind. The world has been given this time to pause and think. The thing that will also help us and will reduce the number of fatalities is to stay socially distant. Being only in a small group. Our families. We are given a golden opportunity to love and be close to our families and to love them and spend time with them.
This is a huge gift from God. But the only way we can see it as such is if we open the eyes of our hearts and see with spiritual vision.
God Bless You,
Stay Safe
Your brother in Christ,
Johnny Cavazos MD