Standing in the gap
All of us are now finding out what it feels like to suffer a plague.
I don’t want to get into why. That wouldn’t do you any good here.
But I think you will agree with me on the what: COVID-19 is a plague on the human race.
The other day, a Bible verse came to mind: Gospel of Luke 22:31. Jesus said to his best friend, Simon Peter: “Simon, Simon! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Are we not being sifted like wheat?
A plague has a way of showing the truth about us. It shows the stuff in our souls. A plague will show a coward to be a coward, a fool to be a fool, a selfish person to be a selfish person. It shows that someone who claims to be somebody is actually nobody at all.
A plague also shows us the nobodies who are actually somebodies.
In the Bible, in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 22, God is getting emotional over the plagues and the violence that are wiping out Israel. He says in verse 30: “And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.”
Over the last two weeks, I’ve found myself worrying. Are our leaders up to the task of “standing in the gap” between the plague and our families?
I don’t know. The plague will show us whether our leaders are worthy of us.
But what I do know is this: Whether our leaders are in that gap or not, I know that millions of people are already standing in there between the plague and my family and your family.
They are the doctors and nurses. They are grocery store checkout clerks, the delivery people, the food service workers, the garbage men, the migrant workers in the fields, the paramedics, the police officers, the truck drivers, the utility workers. They are our neighbors and they are at this very moment loving us as they love themselves.
Thank God they are standing in the gap for you and me. Thank God they are giving us millions of reasons to hope.
Grace and peace.