Thursday, April 23, 2020

Seeing Trouble and Sorrow


Thursday, April 23, 2020

Death wrapped its ropes around me; the terrors of the grave overtook me.  I saw only trouble and sorrow.  Psalm 116:3

You cannot watch a news program without sensing what the Psalmist wrote about death’s ropes we’re currently experiencing in the wake of the deadly COVID-19 virus.  The terrors of the grave are being counted like cattle passing through the slaughter pens.  The news channels have the counter graphics listing how many infected, how many deaths; we tabulate the terror, moment by moment.
I am nearly 73 years old and I have never met my aunts, who were twins.  They were born shortly before they died in the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.  All I have to know about them is a few sketchy details told me by family members and this picture showing a strong family resemblance on my mother’s side.  And, my reaction to all of this, more than 100 years after these baby aunts of mine became part of a frightening statistic (estimated at somewhere between 50 and 100 million deaths worldwide[1]), is a sense of trouble and sorrow.  It troubles me that I know so little about these babes who are elder sisters to my mother; it holds me in sorrow for the grave shadows we see cast over cradles of those who have hardly begun to live.
My aunts died 30 years before I was born, but the grief is still there for having never met them; there is a sense of loss that mingles with those who suffer the loss of their blood.  From every record of wars, we count the dead.  We mourn the losses of senseless violence in the streets, unthinking carelessness of unsecured firearms, and infanticide of the abortion clinics…chosen grief, trouble and sorrow.  To be certain, Adam and Eve still mourn the loss of Abel to violence, and Cain to his own sin.
But the one who suffered and grieved most in the eons of time and eternity is Yahweh, Almighty God, who, grieved over the suffering of humankind.  After all, what parent will not have a part of the death of his child?  Who is unmoved by the suffering of a loved one?  Multiply that by the billions of souls God has created and watched to the grave.
And what, pray tell, does this all-powerful God do about all this suffering?  Amid the worst of it God gives hope…and even joy.  Peter understood that:

You love him even though you have never seen him.  Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.  The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.  This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you.  They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.  They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you.  And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.  It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.  1 Peter 1:8-12

To go along with my sense of trouble, sorrow, and loss of the aunts I will never truly know until I enter Heaven’s gates and finally see them, there is that inexpressible, yet joyful knowing the angels are eagerly looking forward to God’s full reunion and restoration of all things.  They can’t wait to see me, and see all my family, and the human family completely at home, completely fulfilled in the glory of Christ.
For You Today
As you watch the counters tick off how many infected, and how many deaths, remember the statistic for death is 1 out of every 1; our mortality is assured by the fact that we are human and it is appointed that we shall not live forever in these bodies.  But, just as assuredly, our eternity of joy with God is securely offered at the cross.  For those who place their trust in Jesus the counters are sad for today, but a strong reminder of God’s love and power to save us from trouble and sorrow.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For other posts on 1 Peter see Rotweiler Joy and Joy Unspeakable and Better Than Baby Toes and New

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