Pastor's Column 9/13/20

PASTOR’S COLUMN

“As for your children that you said would be taken by plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.” Numbers 14:31, NIV

2nd Sunday-“The Generation Forward!”

In the midst of this unexpected health pandemic, it is strange to hear people becoming so factious when discussing the possibility of a vaccine. There’s the group who believe the Nova-coronavirus is a hoax; which given the reality of death, nearly 180,000 people in America in 36 weeks; and about 4 million people testing positive, the argument is absurd. The fact that far more people die in America from issues “other than” Covid-19 does not dimmish its harrowing effects on men, women, and children in over 200 countries on the earth. If there is the possibility of a cure for “any” disease that causes human misery or death, that news should be welcome as a sign to think forward. Recently, I’ve thought about the polio scare that haunted America. When I was a school age boy, Dr. Albert Sabin discovered a vaccine that could be placed on a sugar cube and taken orally. I remember joining our neighbors, filing into our elementary school on a Sunday afternoon to take the Sabin oral polio vaccine. The vaccine was a pink liquid on a sugar cube, which was painless and somewhat pleasant to take as it quickly dissolved on our tongues. As a result of that vaccine, along with an earlier one by Dr. Jonas Salk which could only be administered by needle injection, the polio disease was prevented throughout all of the United States. I don’t recall much murmuring about the vaccine during those days. Everyone, it seems, had a “forward outlook” about becoming a healthy nation. On their way to Canaan, where God promised a new and healthy life, the adults complained intensely! As a result, God allowed only persons under twenty years old to inhabit the promise land. Perhaps the generation forward will understand the value of trusting God and His use of science for us all!