The Beginning of the End

In John 16:20 Jesus told his followers about an imminent change to which they could look forward with rejoicing..."You're going to be in deep mourning while the godless world throws a party. You'll be sad, very sad, but your sadness will develop into gladness." This verse reminds me of today's circumstances.

In the middle (we hope) of this pandemic, some are ignoring the mandates and guidelines and are continuing to party as though life had not changed. They are reasoning that certainly Mother Nature has not thrown us a vicious curveball. Others are in mourning. Most of us are in some degree of sadness. God promises that this will end and our sadness will turn to gladness. We are distancing, quarantining, washing, masking-up when we must go out, and praying. The numbers should tell us when the curve is leveling. We are hopeful that both the health and economic recoveries are just around that distant corner. We trust the beginning of the end arrives sometime this month.

from Wikipedia

As frequently occurs in these blogs, a memory popped into my head. Back in the Fifties Peter Graves starred in one of those Sci-Fi Classics that I rewatch from time to time.The movie's title was The Beginning of the End. Graves' role was that of a scientist whose experiments had gone horribly awry creating a hoard of giant, mutant, carnivorous locusts. The bugs proceeded to lay siege to Chicago. The world was next on their Invade and Eat List. Only through the ingenuity of science was the star of the original Mission Impossible series and Airplane! farces able to match soundwaves to the locusts incessant squealings and drown them in Lake Michigan. The global locust pandemic was quickly averted.

I believe the power of prayer and perhaps the God-given intelligence of some of mankind will lead to the timely demise of the Coronavirus. Even if we can't turn our own sadness to gladness, we must have faith that God can and will.  This is NOT the beginning of the end. Together we must continue to fervently pray and wash.