FROM Ist JANUARY TO 31st DECEMBER 2020

Covid 19 has come and gone, leaving behind for many, the memories of loved ones snatched away by the disease and for others a distant past of restrictions and inconveniences which finally came to an end. Covid is still around, knocking one down here and another there, but it’s not unseen the ogre that stalked the land for two years. So, we ask ourselves, what was that all about?

I wrote this musing at the end of the first year of the pandemic.

This is the last day of a very significant year in the history of the nations and in the church of the Lord Jesus at this time. I say this in faith because the biggest thing that has happened in this year is the global pandemic of Covid-19 which has affected every nation on earth. What has it meant for the church?

According to Paul, despite the way things appear…

“… God raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.”

Ephesians 1:19-22 NLT

So, I believe that even this global catastrophe is part of the ALL THINGS over which Jesus is head and in control for the sake of the church.

The first day of 2020 began for me with the Holy Spirit giving me this cryptic message without any explanation… “Something big is going to happen this year.” I was left to wonder what the “something big” would be.

As the months went by, I began to understand what the big thing is, a global disease over which humans have no control, that has affected every person in every nation on earth.

However, although it has affected every person on earth in some way, God is using this disease in some way for the church, and eternity alone will reveal what its significance is for the church right now.

Where the first day of 2020 began with a message of gloom and warning, the last day began with the unfolding of a beautiful truth which not only explains my past but will also carry me to the end of my days.

I was looking for a picture which would vividly illustrate the final Scripture of my “Bible in a year” reading.

“Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street.”

Revelation 22:1 NLT

What a beautiful vision… the water of life flowing from the throne of God!

My thoughts turned to Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman who came to draw water at the well. What did Jesus see in this woman? Someone who was filthy with sexual lust? An adulteress who just couldn’t stop sinning? Did He accuse and condemn her for her sinful lifestyle?

No. He saw a thirsty woman who kept drinking water from the wrong fountain. She went from husband to husband, lover to lover, desperately longing to be truly loved, only to find that so-called human “love” failed to satisfy her thirst.

Jesus saw her, not as a sinner who had offended God but as a thirsty woman desperate to be loved. Her sin was the result of the quest for love that took her to the wrong fountain.

Let’s put it another way. When someone is sick, the disease or malfunction produces symptoms which are not the real problem. They are signs of the problem in one’s body. The doctor does not treat the symptoms. He looks for the problem that causes the symptoms which will go away when the problem is solved.

Likewise, sinful behaviour is not our real problem. What is it that results in sinful behaviour? We drink water from the wrong source!

Jeremiah penned God’s diagnosis when he wrote,

“For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”

Jeremiah 2:13 NLT

Now I understand why I have gone astray so many times in my life, producing guilt and shame but no solution to my thirst for love.

Jesus gave a life-changing promise to those who believe that He is the source of true, unfailing and eternal love…

“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

John 7:37-38 NLT

Jesus is the only fountain of living water that satisfies. His love is freely given to those who come to Him and drink.

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.”

John 15:9 NLT

When we fail to seek Him in every circumstance of our lives, forgetting that He is our source, we will try other fountains, only to discover that there is nothing outside of His love that can truly quench our thirst.

Our attitudes and behaviour will always reveal the fountain from which we are drinking.

So, at the beginning of 2021, let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is the fountain of living water. To navigate this year in peace and contentment, let’s keep ourselves in His love in every circumstance and let’s stay away from polluted fountains because they will never satisfy our thirst.

But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

Jude 1:20-21 NLT”

Despite Covid and all the unpleasantness and pain it caused, we who are forever joined by faith to Jesus, have this source of eternal love from which we can never be separated.

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39