My Grandma has told stories about her 8th birthday for years. A whole crowd of family and friends had gathered in the Rissacher home in upstate New York to celebrate. Gram was in a pretty dress, they’d bought a cake for the occasion and it was a snowy, sunshiney day. Amid the festivities, at around 3 in the afternoon, a voice interrupted the radio that had been playing music in the background. The voice was urgent and the entire party stopped to listen.
It was December 7th, 1941.
The voice was announcing the attack of pearl harbor.
Gram recalls the entire mood of the party changing. Everyone started crying and people left and went home before they even started serving dinner and dessert.
Not only had our country faced a vicious attack that day with hundreds of losses, but everyone, from the president to the soldiers to my eight year old grandma, was coming face to face with the reality of war and a long road ahead of suffering and sacrifice.
I always thought it was a cool thing that my Grandma’s birthday was on the same day as pearl harbor. But I don’t anymore. I’m sorry for that eight year old little girl whose whole world was rocked that day, along with her birthday party.
Our world is being rocked right now as well. Although the comparison between COVID-19 and World War 2 is definitely different, I believe we are living in history. We are making sacrifices, whether that means giving up our routines, giving up social activities, working long hours treating the ill, losing work, or losing loved ones.
This is hard. And we weren’t expecting this.
Just like my eight year old Grandma who pulled on her dress and put in her pigtails on the morning of December 7th without any idea of the sorrow that was to come, we could have never imagined that a flu that began in the markets of China would spread throughout the whole world and leave behind so much damage in it’s wake.
There are some things we can never prepare for. If I’ve learned anything in my 20 years of life, it’s that. We aren’t guaranteed anything. We make our plans and we have our routines, but we never know what the future holds.
These days so much is uncertain. I’ve cried a lot. I’ve worried. I’ve wondered. And I’ve been tempted time and time again to let the waves of fear overtake and pull me down. If you’ve been there too, trust me, I understand.
But there is one thing that is certain, amid all this.
There is ONE who is certain.
There is God.
God knows the future. Before the mountains were formed or the canyons were carved, he planned and prepared these very days we’re living in.
He is all knowing, all powerful, all wise. He is incredibly kind. Overwhelmingly gracious. Limitless in love. Eternally just. Impartially merciful.
He knew that on my Grandmas eight birthday, pearl harbor would be attacked. He knew last year while we were making our 2020 resolutions that what we’d planned would look very different than what would unfold. He knew the leaders who would be in place during this time. He knew the people who would lose their jobs, and the businesses that would be forced to shut down. God even knew the face and name of every person who has died from COVID-19.
But he is not cruel. He is perfect and trustworthy and faithful and good. He defends the feeble. He seeks out and saves that which was lost. He is the doorway to deliverance and the pathway to peace. He is the wellspring of life who breaks the chains of the captives and binds up the wounds of the broken.
He knows when the sun sets. He tells it when to rise. He knows the caverns and crannies and trees and trunks and hollows and hedges where every creature in his world sleeps at night.
He knows all things.
I look to him, and though I do not understand these present times, I am filled with hope because I trust with my life, and my loved ones, and the dreams and desires I once held dear.
So amid the confusion and the frustration we are facing right now, the one question on my mind isn’t “Does God know whats happening to our world?” but, “Does our world know God?”
In the Bible the Lord said that in the last days plagues would break out over the face of the world and earthquakes would rock it’s very foundations.
I don’t want to be weird and freak people out and tell them that the end is coming (even though we did just have an earthquake in Idaho and the entire world is amid a global pandemic), but I feel a sense of urgency during this time to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
To share hope.
So much is being stripped away. Travel. Sports. Salons. Movie theaters. Restaurants. The Olympics. Disneyland. The list goes on. I pray that this “purging” in a sense, has given people time to think about whats truly important, about their loved ones, their life, their future… even about death, as morbid as that sounds, because if you don’t know where you’re going after you die, life will always be full of fear. And maybe the ongoing busyness and meaningless activities of our routines have distracted us from that.
The Lord says no one knows the day or hour of his return so I’m not going to tell you that it’s the end. But I will tell you one thing for sure. He will return. He promised in Revelation saying,
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last… I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” -Revelation 22:12-13, 16-17
He is coming friends. He is. He promised.
I don’t know much about the future, but I know that for sure. I know that without a doubt. And I also know that when he comes for me, I’ll be ready. Not because of good works I’ve done, or could ever do, but because He died for me, to reconcile my bruised and battered heart and to make me a child of God. To make me his.
And you can be his too. Whoever is thirsty for peace and hope, Jesus says come, and you’ll never thirst again. He is the living water who will forgive all your sins and can heal all your diseases. He will redeem your life from the pit and give you a hope and a future beyond this world and it’s present chaos.
If the news and the people wearing masks in groceries stores is making you feel scared and frustrated and confused and worried, then let his peace pursue you. Let his mercy meet you.
Jesus himself says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and him with Me.” -Revelation 3:20
I wonder if my Grandma thought the world was ending on her eight birthday. For those who lost their husbands and sons and brothers during the attack of pearl harbor, it probably felt like it was.
But it didn’t end that day. And maybe this coronavirus, though strange and unsettling, isn’t the end of our world yet either.
We don’t know. But God does.
This time is incredibly confusing and uncertain. But I beg you to use it, to think deeply and consider,
if the world did end today, would I be ready?
Would I be ready to meet the King of Kings?
The bible says draw near to God and he WILL draw near to you. Seek him and you WILL find him. Knock and the door WILL be opened to you. Believe and you WILL be saved.
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus says, “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again. Everyone the Father gives Me will come to me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no way cast out.” -John 6:35-37
Please, I beg of you, if you hear his call, don’t turn away. He is all the hope we have, whether we are in times of peace or times of panic. His grace and his goodness will never disappoint.
I don’t know what the future holds, I don’t know how long of a future we have, but I know who is before it and behind it, and who has planned it from the beginning of time. And all I could hope, with all my heart, is that you would be there too, before the feet of my Savior and Lord, at the end of time and space.
“My knowledge of this life is small, the eye of faith is dim. But its enough that Christ knows all, and I shall be with him.” -Richard Baxter
