Are there any three words that instill fear as much as these? What a terrible feeling it is to find out that you are indeed, infected. Although your chance of survival is great, the fear of dying overtakes our senses and makes us say and do crazy things.
Of course, I am referring to sin. Everyone has been infected since our father Adam sinned. The challenge is, "what do we do with this information?" If it were a new problem, it would require mass coverage via the media. How do we know? Look at the flu cases and deaths this season. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), there have been over 34 million cases of flu this year. Of that, over 350,000 flu patients have been hospitalized with over 20,000 deaths so far. That is an amazing number that we never hear. While the world is always afraid of an "unknown" threat, it tends to forget the threats that are still there.
According to the CDC, there have been 129,158 cases of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) with 4,749 deaths. This a terrible situation. It is a "pandemic". According to Webster, this is something that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the people. This COVID-19 is a terrible thing. Putting it into perspective means nothing to someone who has been told they are infected or is watching a loved one suffer from the symptoms.
Coronavirus is actually a grouping of viruses. This is why you see COVID-19 when dealing with the current threat. According to the CDC, there are seven viruses in this family that can infect people. They are:
1. 229E (alpha coronavirus)
2. NL63 (alpha coronavirus)
3. OC43 (beta coronavirus)
4. HKU1 (beta coronavirus)
5. MERS-CoV (beta coronavirus)
6. SARS-CoV (beta coronavirus)
7. SARS -CoV (our current COVID-19)
You may recognize in that group other familiar names; MERS and SARS. When these were on the front page, the whole world was in a complete panic. Although still around and affecting the lives of millions, we never hear of them; unless politically trying to skewer an adversary. We become desensitized once we know what it is and how to deal with it. Whether we do or not, we think someone else will do it for us.
The idea of being sick scares everyone, especially the elderly and the parents of the very young. Any new outbreak of something will especially capture our attention. Although human coronaviruses were first discovered in the 1960s, we only hear of COVID-19 today. Why is that? We become desensitized to a problem quickly once we realize it does not affect us. This is the most dangerous sort of ignorance there is. Why? Because it will affect you forever. Once we discover a "cure" or a "prevention", we ease up in our minds.
The oldest virus know to man is still around today. It affects all 8 billion people currently alive today. It has affected every human since Adam. It is sin. While we may not test positive for a virus like MERS, SARS, or COVID-19, we all test positive for sin. We are S-I-N positive. Why do we forget? Because there has been a "cure" and a "prevention" around for years. His name is Jesus. While it may seem too simple to just call upon the "name of the Lord" and "thou shalt be saved", is it not also simple to just get a shot and be done with it if we have a "cure" or a "prevention" for other illnesses? It is the same idea for any virus. Someone else did something for us (doctors), we accept the premise (shot, pill, etc), and we live.
In this trying time of illness and viruses, we must remember that this is not unprecedented territory. We must remember that MERS and SARS are still around. COVID-19 will not go away either. We will discover some medicine that will help prevent it, but it will still be around. The world's first virus is still around as well and will not go anywhere until the vaccine is put into place permanently. That vaccine is Jesus and He and only He, can take away that S-I-N virus.
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