Scripture for a Pandemic

Over the years, God seems to provide us followers with scripture passages that carry us through various seasons of life – anchors we can cling to. For my 18th birthday, toward the end of my senior year in high school, I was given a little Hallmark book entitled Consider the Lilies: Great Inspirational Verses From the Bible. It actually served as my bible for the next year or so (sad as that seems today). It pointed me to a few scriptures that served as anchors through my first couple years after high school. The scripture that resonated the most with me can be found in Matthew 6, part of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Especially helpful were verses 25-34…

²⁵ “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (NKJV)

Looking for a go-to scripture on which to focus as you figure out how to navigate a pandemic such as this? You might want to think about this passage from Jesus’ teaching to his first century followers. He was preparing them to live in a pandemic of sorts. He was preparing them to be kingdom people in a time of uncertainly – a season laced with anxiety, hardship, and persecution. He was telling them clearly that God is bigger than anxieties, hardships, and persecution. And he’s bigger than pandemics, I suspect.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet they thrive during a pandemic. Lord, help us to not simply survive this pandemic, but maybe even thrive a bit. Help us to surthrive, as my friend Mick would say.