Yesterday, the UK reached what the BBC called ‘a grim milestone in an abnormal year’ -the number of deaths related to Covid-19 is now officially 100,000.
Lord, my mind struggles to take in the depth of suffering on a global scale. I cannot imagine it. The sheer numbers overwhelm me. 100,000 in the UK alone. 2.16 million worldwide. Oh Lord!
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:6
Lord, my heart struggles to take in the depth of suffering on an individual level. What each one represents – in terms of suffering, pain, loss, grief – I cannot fathom. I try to imagine what it was like for a NI missionary in Brazil to die there, in the midst of the chaos of the pandemic. Or for an elderly care home resident to pass away, anywhere in the world, without the presence of their loved ones. Or for a young person in a hospital, hooked up to machines, gasping for breath, frightened, slipping away from life, from their hopes and dreams, from their future. Each number is a person. Each one of those 100,000 mattered. Each one of those 2.16 million mattered. Oh Lord!
For you formed their inward parts;
you knitted them together in their mother’s wombs.
Psalm 139:13
Lord, my soul struggles to begin to understand how to hold all of this with what I know of you. On one hand, my soul cries ‘Do you not care?’
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Mark 4:38
Lord, on the other hand, I choose to hold on to what I know to be true: yes, you do care.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31
So, Lord, with my mind, heart and soul struggling, I cry to you.
Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I. Psalm 61:1-2
Nurturing Growth, Encouraging Rest 