When God Draws Near

It was not in Wuhan, China
but a Garden long ago
where a virus
that would plague the world
broke out.
It was the original pandemic.

A man and a woman
distanced themselves from their Creator.
Hiding from God,
they insisted on wearing masks,
disguising their true identity,
pretending to be other than they were.

And the outbreak has not been contained.
It has been passed from family to family
and generation to generation
for thousands of years
with similar consequences.

The disease is catastrophic.
The infection is universal.
Those contaminated suffer from
hopelessness, despair, loneliness and shame.
It is a terminal illness.

And through the centuries,
a kind and merciful Creator
has refused to be kept away.
Instead of sheltering in place
our loving God has drawn near.
Through prophets and priests and kings,
through princes and farmers and shepherdesses,
through farmers and physicians,
through tax collectors and fishermen,
through rabbis and rebels,
the Great Physician has attempted to
examine us that He might heal us.
But we've resisted.

Eventually,
having been born among us
as one of us,
the Creator
fully embraced the human condition.
And on a Roman cross
this loving God stretched out His arms
and reached into our helpless plight
and touched us with His grace.

In His face
we see the life
for which we've longed.
In His blood
we claim the antibody
that alone can cure our sin.
In His death
we acknowledge the needed sacrifice
a holy God demands.
In His resurrection,
we take hold of the promise
that He will never leave us or forsake us
whether we are six feet apart
or six feet under.