Who Will Remember Him?

Challenges are all around us.  We are hunkered down in our houses trying to make the best of a bad situation.  We all agree it’s something we should do, but none of us want to be holed up in one place for longer than a day.  Yet most of us are following the social distancing mandates.

The atmosphere is unchartered.  We are fearful.  No one wants to be the next one who catches the villainous germ.  A friend of mine posted recently someone in her apartment complex has caught the demon but most don’t know who.  They aren’t privy to that information.  So, they (and we) wait and press on the best way we know how.

Add to this general health issues and the economic struggles, that for many families, is a very real concern, and the storm threatens to overwhelm us.  Depending on the severity of the additional difficulties, we consider giving into defeat.  The temptation to quit has caused more than one person to ‘throw in the towel,’  literally in this life, by taking their own.  Fear can do that to a body and that’s scary.

For most of us though, we hang on by a thread and listen; listen closely to see if we can hear anything besides those voices screaming in our heads to give up.  Finally, ever so faintly, we hear a whisper in the wind.  It’s calling; no….He’s calling.  The voice we are hearing is the Messiah.  The God-man that went to the cross.  He’s calling us to hold on; to reach for him even in our darkest moments.

He has the ability to give us the strength we need, even when we don’t feel like we have anything left.  He after all, gave everything he had, including his life, ---so we could have life.  Isn’t that what Easter is all about?

Our days seem filled with darkness and despair, not for a moment certain who is going to be the next victim.  Will it be my neighbor, one of my children, my spouse or even me?  It (the germ) is indiscriminate to race, gender, religion or creed.  It attacks anyone within range.  

I wonder how Jesus must have felt when he was carrying the cross to Calvary.  Could he have felt, even if just for a moment, there wasn’t a person in the crowd who cared what he did.  Did he feel attacked from all sides?  I can’t imagine the emotions he must have gone through, even though he knew the sacrifice he was making was his destiny. 

We’ve just celebrated Easter and our lives continue.  It’s what we do.  We will eventually get  through this Covid-19 mess, and those who would call on God in their despair will once again get busy with the movement of life, and its fast pace.  Will these same people, who desperately called on Him to help them in their time of need, remember who He is when life is ‘good’ again? 

Will the society who reaches out to each other in decent humanity now, remember how dark and bleak life felt for some, after the ‘terror’ of not knowing who is next for the virus, is gone? It’s something worth thinking about.