15 As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
Psalm 103:15-18 English Standard Version (ESV)
Even as a world-stopping virus sweeps through our lives, spring has come.
The first day of spring came and went with very little public notice. I have been spending a lot of time in my garden and taking walks in my neighborhood. Trees I thought I might have killed are growing leaves. The grass has gone wild. I have noticed that tons of flowers have blossomed. I love plants and flowers, so my heart is happy with all the beautiful surprises.
One thing I have been pondering, though, is that we humans can only facilitate the growth of these plants, but we can’t give them the life to grow with. If you have ever planted old seeds, most of them don’t sprout even if you have perfect conditions. I can’t put the life into them. I can only give them the right environment for them to do what they were created to do naturally.
The novel coronavirus has rapidly spread across the globe with neither our science, medicine, knowledge, or technology hindering it. The scariest part of all of this is the feeling of powerlessness many people feel. It is like when you or a relative has a life-threatening illness and the doctors say there is nothing they can do. I remember when I went in labor with my oldest son at 23 weeks gestation. The doctors said they couldn’t stop it. They couldn’t do anything about it. It was beyond them. It was a shock to me. The same thing happened with my mother’s brain cancer and multiple family members with various cancers. How can this happen?
Suddenly, we discover we aren’t the little gods we thought we were. All that we have ever learned, accomplished, or done has suddenly become worthless to save us. We have become the grass.
That isn’t as bad a thing as it seems.
God sustains the grass and flowers. He gives them LIFE without us.
My great-grandmother used to tell me, “Until it is your time to go, nothing can kill you unless God lets it. When it is your time to go, nothing can save you.” She wasn’t advocating a nihilism or a reckless use of one’s life. She was talking about the sovereignty of God. God is in charge of life and death. We don’t get to decide when we live or die, God does. Often we don’t actually believe that. God can rescue even the suicidal, but sometimes he doesn’t. The hand of the person taking a life is only successful if God allows it. But why does he allow it?
We all die.
I know that is horribly depressing. Sorry. The fact is that this plague is not much different than any plague in human history. Randomly some die and some live (Ecc. 3:1-8). I am not saying we shouldn’t strive to save lives or live, but what I am saying is that God is the only one who is actually in control.
Perhaps this is the point you raise your fist to heaven and ask why God allows so many to die?
My question is why does God allow us to live?
I see the flowering weeds, and they grow even though we wish for them to die. We mow them over. We spray killer on them. We pluck them from the ground. Yet, still, the weeds grow, not of their own will, but because God makes them grow. (Job 14:5-7)
We live only because God has put the life in us to live. (Psalm 139)
Who knows what tomorrow holds, but I believe we should live each day grateful for the miracle of that day, virus or not (Psalm 90:12-17). God has given us life, not we ourselves.
Have hope because God loves us. He has not forgotten us (Isaiah 49:15). He did not give us life just to throw us away. We will live the days given to us from before we were born and each of those days is a miracle and a gift. Live well, not in fear.
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