One of the phrases that has become quite popular in the last few weeks is, “We will all get through this together”.  We hear it from many government officials at the end of their public addresses, from numerous television commercials, as well as other sources.  This is not to suggest that everyone that uses this expression has horrible motives, but does it present an  accurate and true assessment of the situation that we are in?

There certainly is a sense in which “We are all IN this crisis      together.” We all surely appreciate the efforts of our health   care workers, first responders, and all those on the front lines dealing with this pandemic. And we all absolutely have          responsibilities to each other as well as to those God has placed in authority over us in government. We should do all that we can as citizens to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

But the phrase, “We will all get through this together” seems to imply that ultimately it is our “togetherness” as a human race that will get us through this; that we can, at the end of the day, look to each other in order to make it through. It has the ring of a Godless dependence, a self-reliance.  As if somehow, we have what it takes to see our way clear of this pandemic. Ironically, it has been our “togetherness” that has been the perpetrator in the spread of the virus.  It is “togetherness” that everyone has taken such unprecedented measures trying to avoid.

We read about a group of people that had this Godless            self-reliance in Genesis 11:3-4 at the Tower of Babel.  And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.  Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves…

As believers, our outlook during this Coronavirus ordeal should be vastly different than that of the world.  Times like these serve to remind Christians of what we already know.  That we were created to be a dependent people, not ultimately on each other, but on our Creator, the True, Supreme and Living God. The One in whom “we live and move and have our being” Acts 17:28.  The knowledge of our reliance on God should lead us to much prayer during this time. God’s Word teaches us that prideful self-reliance will keep us from seeking Him, but that humble submission will teach us to “cast our cares on Him for He cares for us” 1 Peter 5:7.

As Christians, how will we all get through this?  I believe our response to this should be that of  the apostle Paul in Romans 14:8-9  For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.  For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

For those of us who hope in The Living Hope, Christ Jesus our Lord, we will either “make it through all this”, not because we are together, but by the Grace of God, our we will “depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” (Philippians 1:23)

 Elder Brian Hayes