The sickness of COVID-19 is definitely straight from the pits of hell. There is no way that the good God who set the planets in motion, breathed life into humans, and sent His son is responsible for the virus now in the world --- He's far too good for that. We can rest knowing that the coronavirus is not part of God's will; rather, it is only possible because of the world's separation from God.
The enemy, the devil, loves to use these kinds of calamities in the world to make us think, “God must not care. God must not be powerful enough to stop this virus because I haven't seen Him step in to help up 'til now.” However, the enemy often forgets that our God can use anything for His Kingdom purposes.
When COVID struck my family back in October, my brother, my sister, my parents, and I ended up testing positive. I did not know how bad our symptoms would get. I began to call my family daily to see how they were doing. I spoke with my sister Laurel and learned that she was struggling with fear that she had introduced the virus to our family.
It was then that the blessing of COVID began to show itself. I was given an excuse, a reason, an opportunity to show love to my family! In the following days, even with my own case developing, I was able to have some great conversations with my family members. I let them know that it did not matter to me how the coronavirus had gotten to us; I would not have changed a thing about the seemingly small risks we took together in order to spend time growing our relationships and celebrating my brother Max’s 21st birthday!
It wasn’t long after that I was blessed with three friends bringing over food and medicine to my house. I had the blessing of being able to receive from my social circles on multiple occasions because they took advantage of the blessing of COVID. During that same time, my parents and brother received some of the world's best barbecue as a gift from their pastor.
The blessing of COVID is the obvious opportunity it brings to help those around us. We live in a time when revealing our struggles is seen as a weakness, rather than the strength that it truly is. COVID is a real struggle many of us and the people around us will eventually see. I hope I will always take advantage of opportunities to buy someone their groceries, bring over a meal, gift all the vitamins I should have been taking the whole time, and just share my love and concern for them through a phone call, text, or socially distant visit. What an amazing perspective when we realize that the troubles and weaknesses of the world are often the things God loves using to spread the things of His kingdom. Let’s use COVID to share our love for one another, our hope in better days to come, and our faith that God will use even this for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.