The virus has made us look at and into each other’s eyes. A not-unpleasant experience since eyes are windows into the soul. I’ve seen some very interesting eyes in the past few weeks. It’s permitted us to see masks worn as everyday necessities, even in banks, convenience and grocery stores. Refreshing, when it used to mean a robbery in progress Sign of the times, however: I read this past week of a masked woman, hidden behind sunglasses and a hat, robbing a store.
The virus had led to washing and re-washing of hands. Conclusion: we’re either wonderfully over-hand washed now or previously woefully under-hand washed. From observing hand-washing habits of loved ones and strangers before they eat, it’s more likely the latter. The virus has also forced an isolation on us that’s led to creative ways to amuse ourselves. One San Diego artist has found painting rocks a pleasant avocation since her art-shows don’t exist now. She then stashes them in neighborhood yards for perfect strangers to find. It’s certainly changed the long-time habit some of us have enjoyed: giving hugs! Tracy, our resident church-hugger, has been reduced to elbow touches. And speaking of change: watching a preacher on TV ain’t the same as sitting in a group seeing a preacher proclaim God’s word. To say nothing of being in the assembly as all of God’s people SING to the glory of God in Christ. To say nothing of sharing the Lord’s Supper with the entire group instead of with your wife each Sunday. What this writer has especially noticed: we’re suddenly afraid: of each other; of what’s happening; of what may happen; of staying inside; of congregating anywhere. Indeed, we’re now afraid of everything but Judgment Day. And of everyone but God. We want to avoid every activity that could hazard our health, but remain unafraid of habits, associations, entertainments, materialism and secularism that blacken our soul before God. And, having experienced an alarming disruption in our national life, nothing in the media has suggested what surely more than a few Christians have pondered: could the COVID-19 be the beginning event in a series of afflictions sent by God to punish us for rejecting his Son? To awaken us to our basic need of forgiveness of sin? To renew faith in the Gospels as true accounts of Jesus Christ’s life? To renew acquaintance with and commitment to Jesus Christ as God’s Last, Final, Full Revelation of himself to humanity? To ready us for a spiritual revival that can come only when we have suffered the BLOW that brings us to our knees before God in Christ? Surely...given what we have become as a nation, contrasted with what we began as a nation, raises the threat of divine judgment on us to far more than a possibility! End Part I
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