“But from this earth, this grave, this dust, my God shall raise me up, I trust.”
~ Walter Raleigh
It is so easy for us to become tunnel-visioned. The pandemic is certainly one of the examples where this happens. Because of our concern with stay-at-home and infection rates and death tolls, we can become hyper-focused on ourselves: our hopes, our dreams, our wants, and our desires. When we become so focused, it often is easy to lose hope.
We are in the midst of something greater than a pandemic, yet we might fail to see it. We are, after all, in the midst of the Easter season. We celebrated Easter Sunday a little less than two weeks ago. Our thoughts should be on the hope and joy that was won for us on that first Easter morning.
When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he destroyed the shackles of sin and death forever. He restored to us all the opportunity for eternal life with God by participating in His resurrection. That is a message of hope that dwarfs any message of doom and gloom that the world could possibly throw our way.
This world is transitory. It is ever changing and it is moving toward the day when it will no longer support life. While that might not be for millions of years, in the eyes of God, that is merely a few seconds.
Should we focus on the pandemic around us? Absolutely. Because of the pandemic, there are things that we need to do: social distancing, wearing masks, and the like. However, we should not allow the pandemic to take our focus off of our hope in the resurrection and of our faith in God. The pandemic is transitory as well. The retrospect of history tells us all that pandemics come and go. Some are worse than others; but, all run their course.
God is not transitory. God is eternal. And so is the resurrection that was won for us by His Son, Jesus Christ. Remember that today.
FAITH ACTION: When in prayer this day, make sure to thank God for the great hope of the resurrection that we celebrate throughout this Easter season.