Pandemic Ponderings, #1

These are challenging times, indeed.  The threat or reality of the Coronavirus has changed our lives in real time.  I have read it and heard it many times over the past weeks, but it is worth repeating: God is still here, and He loves us.  As we and those around us struggle and suffer, it is easy to doubt God’s love and even His very existence.  

We are fallen people in a fallen world.  That is our choice, not God’s.  And since He desires most of all a real-deal-of-our-own-free-will relationship with us, He will not suspend the consequences of humankind’s willful independence from Him.  To be sure, our loving and merciful Lord intervenes at times, but the fallen world, and its inhabitants, remain; evil, sin, sickness, and death continue.  And God hates it.  

Since God has chosen to respect our free will in favor of genuine relationship, He manifests His goodness and love by means of redemption.  Christians look forward to our eventual redemption when God accepts Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and we are welcomed into heaven.  But redemption is who God is—it is part of His nature and character.  So while we wait for our eventual complete redemption, we can depend on His working His redemptive purposes in us and through us as we go about our lives in the here and now.

Please consider with me the power of the following passages:

Romans 8:28—And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Ephesians 5:3-5—And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;  and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;  and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Many folks have observed that these are uncharted times.  That may be true for us, but it is most definitely not true for the Lord.  We can depend on His omniscient, sovereign work of redemption in us, through us, and on our behalf.  He’s got this.