The Race to Save the World from COVID!

The virus has infected 113 million people worldwide! Recovery stats are sketchy, but they indicate that more than half of cases get better. But, for 2.5 million patients, instead of withdrawal of life support for successful independent breathing, their last medical record notation documents a nurse notifying next of kin and calling a funeral director. Two and a half million are dead!

There ARE success stories. Israel's population has reached herd immunity. New Zealand's lockdowns and border control have eliminated COVID-19. Australia and multiple Asian countries have contained the disease's spread. When the Olympics come around, the United States will win more medals than any other nation.But, despite national headlines hinting at a cresting of hospitalizations and deaths, the U.S. is a last place loser when it comes to this pandemic!We're in a life-and-death race to inoculate our millions before super contagious viral variants from the United Kingdom and South Africa sweep across our continent!Last night's news reported two perished couples found in different U.S. locations where they had been quarantining. In the last four days, 97 new confirmed cases have been reported just in our rural county. This is now up-close. It's a race to save the world!

Clear back in 2008, co-heroes, Drs Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, cofounded BioNTech in Germany and focused on treating cancer. Famously hardworking and selfless, the couple dove back into the laboratory following the ceremony on their wedding day. They do not own a car, bicycling to work from their modest apartment. In January 2020, before many in the Western world were paying attention to a new virus spreading in China, Dr. Sahin was convinced it would trigger a pandemic. Sahin and Tureci went to work on a COVID-19 vaccine and by March 2020 they called their contact at Pfizer with whom they had previously worked on an influenza vaccine using mRNA. Less than a year later, their vaccine became the first ever mRNA vaccine available for widespread use against COVID-19. They had raced to the fore!

Cosmic consternation has gripped Planet Earth in the last dozen months. An air-borne killer is disastrous enough. But, there's racial war in the streets spurred by a conspiracy-centered disinformation culture splintering families and political parties and churches and governments. Add a teetering world economy, the near-failure of the finest democracy heretofore suited to be international peace-maker. Then add unnatural disasters from a carbon-heated globe, and these conjoined plights merge to shriek, "The End is upon us! We can't win this race!"

Then, like the scientists whose vaccine miracle is the only bright spot in sight, up steps a Man in white. His rescue was planned and personal, "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8, NKJV). He entered the infection zone Himself. "The Word became a human and lived among us" (John 1:14, NCV). He faced our viral symptoms and was placed on the ventilator for us, "A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief... Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our

iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." Like immunity to COVID-19 provided by the vaccine, “God has given us the gift of eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1John 5:11, VOICE). Drs Ugur and Ozlem's choice of lab over honeymoon mimics the Savior's dedication to sufferers. The "Book" on Him, is, "Look! The one who is guarding Israel never sleeps and does not take naps"

(Psalm 121:44, ISV). The Savior will have conquered COVID, reunited the races, enriched the economy, calmed the climate, and "the government shall be upon his shoulder" (Isaiah 9:6, KJV). He has postponed His own wedding celebration until the crisis period is over, until our resurrected loved ones stolen by COVID rejoin us at heaven's grandest party! And, the Master leans into the tape, leading His disciples from every age across the finish line. He has won the race to save the world!

I'm going with the ultimate Winner,

Chaplain Dave

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