COVID-19, coronavirus, Delta, Omicron—all words that have entered the common language. To some they are terrifying; to others, political footballs. As you read this, you have opinions, maybe fears; perhaps you’ve lost loved ones, are still suffering the effects yourself, or are wondering if your sniffle is a sign of something more. We can learn a lot from this pandemic:

• The human race is interconnected; we are one humanity.
• We all have differing responses to the current pandemic.
• We fight with those who have different responses from ours.
• Governments are not effective in leading their people in a unified response.
• Our “modern” scientific age cannot protect us from all attacks on our well-being.

Our generation is now taking its place along with other plagues that have decimated human populations. Here are some of the worst in human history (as noted by WorldHistory.org):

• A plague ripped through ancient Athens (fifth century BC), where upwards of one hundred thousand people died.
• The Antonin Plague devastated the Roman Empire in the second century AD, where five million people died.
• Fast forward to the Black Plague (also called a Bubonic Plague) of the fourteenth century AD, which took out thirty to fifty percent of the population of Europe.
• The Spanish Flu (also called the Influenza Outbreak) of 1918 AD had an estimated death toll of fifty million to one hundred million worldwide.
• The HIV/AIDS epidemic has killed some thirty-five million people since the mid-1980s.
• Other outbreaks in the US in recent centuries that have had devastating effects include smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, scarlet fever, typhoid, diphtheria, polio, measles, whooping cough, and the list goes on (https://www.healthline.com/health/worst-disease-outbreaks-history).

The greatest plague of all, which receives virtually no comment in the scientific community, is the one called “sin.” This universal pandemic is the first pandemic, and every human being has been infected. Its origin can be traced back to a garden in the Middle East, in a place the Bible calls Eden. The sin disease has been transmitted to every human being who has ever lived. What makes matters worse is that everyone has voluntarily accepted the infection passed on to them. Science cannot cure us of COVID-19; vaccinations can only mitigate its effect. But there is a complete solution to the sin pandemic, and it comes from God, the great Physician. He sent His Son to take on all the sin of the world and “[W]ith His wounds we have been healed” (Is. 53:5).

Epidemics will always occur, for we continue to live in a fallen, plague-filled world. But the greatest of all human outbreaks is the sin problem. And that is cured through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for us, in our place.

Lord, thank You for curing me of the worst plague of all, sin. You have given me new life, eternal life; though physical death may come, I know I will live forever.