The Cure for Coronavirus

The world we live in can be a strange place. All you have to do is read the headlines to know it. On our own, human beings have the capacity to make brilliant strides, do wonderful things that spring society forward… but as a group, we’re sheep.

For example, there’s not one person perpetrating the panic surrounding the newest virus. At least not that I can see. In fact, I see plenty of people trying to calm down the unrest with common sense. And yet, nearly every other article when scrolling through a news site suggests the threat of the world being wiped out by the Coronavirus.

I read an article recently that suggested that our DNA contains memories. That we, on some subconscious level, retain the experiences of our ancestors. If say, a pandemic spread across the world and killed five percent, or even as much as twenty-five percent of the planet at times in history when our capacity to treat it and our understanding of how viruses worked was not as advanced, according to this theory, our DNA remembers what that was like, and doesn’t want it to happen again.

I’m speaking of the pandemics of the Spanish flu in 1918, which killed around 50 million people and infected half a billion, and the Black Death, which killed as much as a quarter of the world’s population, wiping out half of Europe. When you look at it from that perspective it makes sense, then, that we get a little worked up as a species when a virus comes knocking. We’ve seen their capabilities.

But as individuals, I like to think we have a little more sense. I’ve had the flu quite a few times in my life, and never once did I imagine I was actually dying. I may have wanted to because of how bad I felt, but never did I think my life was in danger. In fact, I generally don’t get around to getting a flu shot most of the time. And judge if you like, but I know I’m not alone. As individuals, we kinda think we’re invincible.

But again, as a whole, we tend to blindly follow whatever panic and hype we hear. We’ll run to the store to load up on cleaning supplies and face masks and survival rations, because some newscaster somewhere said that the world was facing a pandemic and people were dying right and left. Why? Why do we overreact as a society?

I would suggest it’s not just our DNA remembering. I think we’re all quite aware, even as reckless as we may behave sometimes, that we ARE dying. Every last one of us. And if we’re too young and healthy for this round of sickness to get us, that doesn’t mean a few years down the road we won’t be a prime target.

So if you think about it this way, we’re all trying to escape death, which the Bible explains happens because of sin. And we can run all we want, but unless God says differently, everyone on this planet will someday return to the dirt. It’s inescapable. It’s the price of a piece of forbidden fruit that unleashed the curse that will eventually wipe out 100% of everyone ever born. And we all know it, way down deep in our heart.

The good news is that we don’t have to panic on an individual level. And we surely don’t have to spread panic. We can share common sense advice, like the benefits of elderberry or vitamin C, sneezing into our arm and of course, washing our hands for twenty seconds with soap and water just like our mommas taught us. But more than that, we can share the hope for the curse. The cure that is as 100% effective as the curse is deadly. It’s Jesus.

I’d say that’s a reason not to panic. He’s got this. He’s got me. He has held me in his hands since I first realized I needed a Savior, and I’d argue he was holding me well before that as well. There’ll never be a moment in this life I have to face without a Savior who loves me enough he took the curse on himself, even though he could exist outside it, and not only did he let the curse kill him, he beat it. He came back. And as he did, he was saying something to every last one of us stuck in the grip of the black death we call sin.

Whoever believes in me will not perish, but have everlasting life.

You can bet your life on it.

When comes the Spring

A Light exists in Spring

Not present on the Year

At any other period –

When March is scarcely here.

-Emily Dickinson

As of yet, there is hardly a whisper of spring here. Some days are cold, rainy and dreary, some are very cold and frosty, some are merely dreary. Dreary seems to be the word that comes to mind the most when looking out the window in the morning, hoping to see signs of life emerging in the forever gray winter.

My baby plants wait patiently in their little nursery on my kitchen counter, nestled between homeschool books and art projects. They don't worry that spring will never come. They aren't sighing at the weather day after day, wishing that the first warm breeze of spring would blow through and wake up nature once again to life and vitality.

Would that I could be more like those little plants, trusting in the warmth of their grow light and the moisture from the spray bottle and their little paper cups that keep them safe. Spring will come, they insist. One day soon, there will be no more need for a heat mat that keeps the temperature at 75 degrees. 

You are looking at the first plants that have emerged that will become part of my garden this year. I have flowers and herbs and vegetables and fruit, all with a particular purpose for the garden I hope to grow. Some will be food. Some will attract valuable insects. Some will repel pests. Some will feed the chickens my daughter is hoping to get next month. Some will make teas and herbs I hope will be helpful to a few of the specific ailments my family tends to experience.

This is only my second year growing completely from seed. I learned last year that I do not need to attempt to plant the whole bag of seeds. They will grow. With the haul I purchased this year, I hope to have no need for more for several years. Beyond that, I hope to be able to save seeds and become a self-sufficient gardener.

In the meantime, I have two places I purchase seeds from. Baker seeds (rareseeds.com) prides themselves on providing heirloom seeds that continue on the legacy of our ancestors with seeds that have not been meddled with by science. They are the plant as they have always been. Baker sends out a free magazine with all their seeds early in the year, and it's fun to look through. They have things I've never even heard of before! I get seeds from Baker that I can't get through my local heirloom seed provider. I like getting the more common seeds locally. I think plants do better when they grown in their native climate.

So for now, my plants are beginning to grow, and I continue to watch the weather and dream about spring. Much work comes, though now I can't even bear to go outside for the cold. Someday. Someday spring will be here, and a garden that has only been a dream will come to life.

Reminds me of other truths. Someday, they will come true as well. God means to keep all his good promises to his people. We can trust that one day will we look back from our future lives and see all he did, and barely remember the dreary, cold years that produced no fruit and provided no nourishing warmth. One day it will all be a memory.