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.
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