This pandemic that has sent the world into chaos and panic over the last year is only a gentle reminder from God that we are sinners living in a Genesis 3 world. Because of sin, the world is under a curse, and that’s why there are thorns and thistles, hurricanes and earthquakes, viruses and death. Our parents, Adam and Eve, once enjoyed perfect fellowship with God in the Garden without sin, but they forfeited that when they rebelled. Since that day that God when banished them from the Garden, God’s people have been sojourners and exiles in a fallen world, waiting in hope for the promised Messiah to come and undo the curse and restore all of creation and our perfect fellowship with God. And while we rejoice that Jesus Christ came and broke the power of sin by His death and resurrection, why does God still allow so much sickness and suffering to devastate the world right now?

There are many answers to this question, but one answer is that God wants to teach us that we are still sojourners and exiles until Jesus returns and fully restores all things. When things are easy and comfortable, we tend to forget that we are not home yet. If we’re honest, many of us work very hard to make life as easy and comfortable as possible. We wrongly assume that being blessed by God means experiencing ease, comfort, and prosperity, and we forget Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 that those who are blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and those who are persecuted.

But God is too loving a Father to allow us to continue in our wrong thinking. The best that this world can offer does not come close to the joys of heaven, and to remind us of this, God sometimes withdraws His merciful protection and allows us to taste the full bitterness of life in a fallen world. We are all tempted to hold onto this world too tightly as if this was our true home, so God lovingly uses trials and difficulties to slowly and sometimes painfully loosen our grip on this world so that we might cling more tightly to the hope we have in heaven. Ease and comfort tempt us to fix our eyes on this earth, but difficulties and suffering help us to lift our eyes to Christ. Prosperity in this life can make us secretly hope that Christ delays His return—”Come, Lord Jesus… but just not yet.” But suffering in this life causes us to cry out with sincerity and urgency, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

As vaccines are being administered and cases are dropping, it looks like the pandemic may finally be coming to an end in the coming months. While I’m looking forward to life returning back to normal, I hope that we as believers would remember that this world is not our home and that we are merely sojourners and exiles here. Instead, let us look forward to the day when Christ will return to gather His people and establish a new heaven and a new earth which will be free from sin, sickness, and death forever.

Revelation 21:1-4 – Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”