How Can God Redeem What Coronavirus Has Taken?
Four months ago I remember watching news of the Coronavirus devastation in other countries. I pondered the likelihood that this deadly virus would ever reach the United States. I even texted a few friends to get their opinion in February.
“Should we be concerned about the Coronavirus?” I naively asked. They, like me, assumed we were safe. They thought we would be protected if we opted not to travel internationally.
I breathed a sigh of relief and took comfort in their response. It was exactly what I wanted to hear, “Wash your hands, don’t touch your face and cough in the crevice of your arm.” This was doable.
My life would not be altered or changed one bit. Life could go on as usual and we could all live happily ever after. That, however, was before grocery store shortages, wide-spread panic, unemployment, and more than 70,000 deaths shattered my hopes of hanging onto the life we lived before the Coronavirus.
The unthinkable happened. Everything I hoped and prayed God would somehow hold off has been unleashed. Now here we all sit, no longer staring at the news we are far removed from, but rather facing that which is unfolding in our backyards.
Many of us know, or we are, someone who has been directly or indirectly impacted by the domino of consequences that have ravaged our world. Whether it be financial, medical, or emotional we are not the same people we were four months ago. Day after day we have endured the shock and horror of this invisible and relentless threat. Families in food lines, Zoom calls, face masks, and hospitals that look war-torn have become commonplace.
Loss is overwhelming: cloaking us like a fog that will not clear. The Coronavirus has left us all with mammoth-sized lumps in our throat as we brace for what could be next and hope the worst is over. The reality no one wants to embrace is that it may not be.
Thus we are left wondering, “Where is God?” “Does He hear my prayers for relief?” “Why has He not answered?” and “How can He redeem what Coronavirus has taken?”
For some of us, we have lost faith in God’s redemptive power. We’ve reasoned He will not resurrect the dead. The economy will not get back to what it was prior to the pandemic. Life may never be the same.
The uncertainty of this time may have caused our faith in God to waiver altogether. We may find ourselves so disappointed that we have given up on praying and believing God can and will come through. Whereas this is a logical response, faith in God defies all logic. Faith in God requires we sink our hope not in the desired outcome but in God Himself.
