Like most of you, I have watched with some measure of interest our national struggle with issues related to the Ebola Crisis. Though it is, at least in terms of cumulative fatalities, less significant than the flu or other common bacterial or viral infections, it frightens us because we know so little about it deadly transmission. We haven’t yet concluded if it is an ‘airborne’ or ‘direct contact’ contagion. That confusion/uncertainty has contributed much to our fears.
As health care workers wrestle with the disease and frantically search for answers, one recent step taken to improve the protocols related to the care of Ebola patients stood out to me. Care givers concluded that ‘every bit of exposed flesh should be covered’. Therefore, we find nurses and doctors draped in ‘hazmat’ uniforms as they care for Ebola stricken patients. These concerned care givers wanted to be ‘completely covered’ as they cared for the needy. The freedom they needed to compassionately care for the sick and dying was provided for them by the protective suits. Those workers know that they have NOTHING whereby they can protect themselves. They trust the suit to do that.
In a similar way, we, who have ALL been fatally infected with a sin disease, need to have ALL of our life covered by something in order to protect us from the effects of that deadly infection. We, too, have NOTHING whereby we can protect ourselves against the infiltration and damage of sin. We need a covering. And that covering is the ‘blood of Jesus’ which CLEANSES us from all sin. God says ‘If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things (the results of sin) are passed away. Behold, all things become new’.
Thanks be to God, Who gives us new life in Christ. Thanks be to God that ‘by grace through faith’ we can be covered with the ‘righteousness of Jesus’ and be found ‘complete’ in Him. Thanks be to God, Who give us the victory in Jesus.
Let’s be a people who reflect in our worship and service to our King our eternal gratitude for His wonderful indescribable gift.