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Corona Virus reminds us of a rock-hard reality we had forgotten:  we are dust.

In this pandemic we are surrounded by risk. We do our best to avoid catching the virus, but it’s difficult, perhaps impossible. There are no guarantees. Even if we stay home we don’t feel completely safe—and shouldn’t. We are vulnerable to tiny invisible germs that could be on the gas pump handle, the milk carton, the family member who looks healthy and doesn’t know they have the virus—and are passing it on.

We feel insecure. We cannot make plans. We cannot control what will happen to us medically, or financially. We cannot travel, or move around, or even eat without risk. We feel fragile—and we are.

Corona Virus has made us aware of that reality. But it has always been true. We have never been in charge, in control. We have never been safe from illness, disease, accident. We only thought we were.

Perhaps because we live in a wealthy and powerful nation; perhaps because we are educated and organized, because we’ve learned to efficiently plan and prepare for anything…  Perhaps because we have been blessed with temporary safety and plenty we have forgotten that, actually, we are never safe. We are just dust.

When Adam and Eve sinned and God sent them away from the Garden of Eden God explained to them how life would be and concluded, “for dust you are and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)

In other words:  we are made of fragile, expendable matter:  earth. Dirt. We are breathing mud pies only because of the breath of God, breathed into our nostrils (Genesis 2: 7). 

“It is of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.” (Lamentations 3: 22)

If we are still here—not wiped out, not gone—it is because God has willed us to be alive.  “If (God) decided to hold his breath, every man, woman and child would die for lack of air.” Job 34:14) Contrary to what we think, we are NOT still here because we scheme and plan and work and feed ourselves, “For man does not live by bread alone, but by every (creative and sustaining) word  that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

We are still here because we are held together by Christ who “holds all things together.” (Colossians 1:17 NLT).

This has always been true. Our lives have always been at risk and our physical bodies could die at any moment. But our God-breathed souls will live for all eternity. If our souls belong to God our souls are fine. We can rest securely in that truth.

That doesn’t mean we should be careless about Co Vid 19. We should be careful. But Co Vid 19 has not changed fundamental reality. We are as safe as we ever were. We are as safe as we ever could be. We are just more in touch with reality; mature people deal in reality.

God may allow an evil thing to invade our bodies and rob us of physical life, but nothing in the whole universe can invade the soul that belongs to Jesus.

This is the reality we live in. Co Vid 19 is just a stark reminder.