In the words of that famous children's book, Alexander and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, this indeed has been a bad week in America

 

The clouds poured down water,

the heavens resounded with thunder;

your arrows flashed back and forth.

18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,

your lightning lit up the world;

the earth trembled and quaked.

19 Your path led through the sea,

your way through the mighty waters,

though your footprints were not seen.

20 You led your people like a flock

by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Psalm 77

This has been a been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.  Those are the words of a famous children's book I often read to my children.  I remembered those words as I witnessed the breach of the Capital police and watching intruders breaking windows and gaining entrance into the sacred United States Capital.  My heart was breaking as I thought about the nations around the world who benefit from the generosity of American's with many wondering how much longer can they depend on us?  I remember saying the pledge of Allegiance at the start of my elementary school days, or singing the national anthem at sporting events, or praying for our leaders in our nations capital.  Like most, I was in the state of disbelief that this was actually happening in America.  I heard someone wondered if we are becoming a banana republic as the damage to our capital building was unfolding.

There is no doubt that the pandemic of 2020 will go down in history as the most tragic of events with the 9  months of isolation and lockdowns that sent people spiraling down into a cataclysmic of depression and despair and hopelessness.  When the public schools closed and distance learning ramped up, many children began falling behind in their studies.  When liquor stores were allowed to remain open, we were seeing a much higher percentage of men and woman becoming addicted to alcohol with marriages breaking up in the process. We witnessed crime rages escalating, domestic abuse cases soaring, suicides increasing and more people dying from the virus.  

When the first cases of the corona virus occurred and the nation went into a lockdown mode, most of us grew skeptical and thought this was one more element of control by the liberal news media which has lead to politicizing the pandemic. 

 One side sided with science and agreed that masks, social distancing, and washing hands are the best ways of getting rid of this virus until a vaccine comes along. 

The other side would rather subscribe to conspiracy theories that says our freedoms are being jeopardize and our rights are taken away and this vaccine they are now injecting is just another way of marking each human being. One side wanted to shut down everything but the 'essential' businesses while the other side wanted to help those other businesses succeed. 

 I use to be one of those subscribers to the conspiracy theories until I understood the science behind the virus and spoke to much smarter people than I about this virus. Mark was one such person. Mark spent his life working in the IT field until he encountered a auto-immune disease that took away his ability to perform his job.

 With time on his hands he began reading up on this virus with the help of  CDC and World health organization's views of this virus and after much thought came to the conclusion that this virus is real and dangerous and we would be fooling ourselves if we refuse to follow the science and protect ourselves and our love ones.

Most of you who know me understand that I'm an optimist.  I always try to look at the good to come out of tragedies and this pandemic is no different than the tragedies of yesteryear. As a child when other kids saw a half empty glass of water, I saw a half full one.  I believe we will survive this monumental pandemic and we will come out stronger, wiser than we did before this pandemic.   I believe that America will continue to survive and there will be a day when we will be taking trips to Washington D.C. to see the restored capital building.

I believe when this pandemic ends that we will never forsake the importance of human relationships, or the gathering in Churches, or having friends over for dinner.  I believe this vaccine that is now going across the country will like, the Jonas Salk's Polio vaccine, completely eradicate the  the coronavirus once and for all to which we will all be reading this sequel, "Alexander and his encouraging, comforting, very good, very very good day!"

Finally, please remember that our Lord Jesus Christ is alive and continues to be ministering in the lives of people who call out to Him even when you may not sense it.