Can it be true? Is today actually the last day April? Wasn’t it just a few days ago that we bade March a fond farewell? Like many, I had hoped that by this month’s end, we would see more victory flags waving in areas where the viral war has been most intense. Instead we welcome May, not with the traditional May Day festivities at elementary schools, but with closed classrooms and empty playgrounds; not with high school senior class proms, award ceremonies and athletic fields packed for commencement exercises, but with empty auditoriums, gyms and stadiums.
Since the coronavirus pandemic debuted on the world stage in January 2020, the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania St has proffered that it is “very well under control in our country.” These four months later we know that to be untrue. Every state in the United States has reported infections, and the numbers continue to rise. So here we are. Month 5 a day away and our battle to contain this invisible enemy still wages. How will we win a war unlike any we have known in our lifetimes? Believers in Christ hear that question and edit it. “How will God win this war that is unlike any we have known?” That for us is the key. It’s a trial we term a war and we understand victory over trials and tribulations are won, not by us but by God working in and through us; often sometimes in spite of us to bring His will to bear in all circumstances, even the circumstance of COVID-19.
Matthew 26:36-46 offers us a window into how and where this coronavirus battle will eventually be won. Christians know well this biblical passage usually entitled, “The Garden of Gethsemane.” It was the night Jesus was arrested. Before that arrest, He went with some of the disciples to a “place called Gethsemane.” There He fell down, His soul weary and sorrowful in anticipation of the battle which awaited Him. He knew both the pain He would endure and the ultimate outcome. What His actions in Gethsemane reveal is that He knew too what He needed to confront and conquer both – time alone with His Father God to pray.
As we look toward the days that will mark the end of spring and beginning of summer, I think we find in Jesus’ conversation with our Father what we need to stay the course with courage, hope and certainty. Read these words and apply them to this time, our Gethsemane moment. Let them reside in your hearts as a spiritual antidote. “My Father , if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (verse 39) “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” (verse 42) Believers see themselves and the world in a state in which we pray for science to be orchestrated by the hand of God for cures and vaccines. We feel the pain and despair of our wounded brothers and sisters and the exhaustion of those on our front lines. We pray for this cup to be taken away; and we pray that God’s will be done. For our faith rests in the surety that whatever is His will is His best for His beloved – us.
Love. Joy. Peace.