My wife has a lot of good ideas. Yesterday she said, “You really need to write something on that passage about the faithful vanishing from the earth.” That’s Psalm 12:1, and after we discussed it, I agreed. So here goes.
I have heard people suggest that COVID-19 provides a great opportunity for the state to rid itself of a huge financial burden—the aged. While I would put nothing past any government, this is a dark and cynical perspective, indeed.
The psalmist laments, “Save O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.”
I still scratch my head when I hear the terror in the air and then read the statistics. The website statista.com reports that here in Canada, for instance, as of 1 December 2020 (two days ago), 11, 573,322 people (30.8% assuming everyone was only tested once, which is not true) have been tested for COVID-19 out of a population of 37.59 million. Those tests have revealed 383,468 (3%) confirmed cases nationwide. 304,888 (79.5%) of confirmed COVID patients have recovered. 12,211 (0.1%) of confirmed patients have died. Statistics Canada reported on 16 November in an article by Kathy O’Brien, et al that: “Of the over 9,500 COVID-involved deaths between March and July, the majority (90%) had at least one other cause, condition or complication reported on the certificate.” 10% of 12,211 is 1,221. That’s how many people out of a population of 37.59 million have evidently died of COVID-19 (.003%). The others have died with COVID-19. There is a difference.
I was widowed at age 60, so I know the excruciating pain of losing the one person on earth I loved the most. In no way do I wish to minimize the death of anyone. Every person who dies enters eternity, and there is no turning back: “. . . it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Whether one dies with or from COVID-19, one’s death is final and mourned by many.
Another clear pattern in COVID-19 mortality besides comorbidity is age. People over 80 years old are especially susceptible, and the majority of deaths have occurred among the elderly. Long-term care facilities have been hard hit, and we hear daily horror stories of deaths, overworked staff, shortages of beds, diminished supplies, and managerial malfeasance of one kind or another.
Which brings me to the point of this piece that Madeleine and I discussed yesterday. While I have serious doubts about the scientific and statistical rationale for the state-and-media-induced panic all over the world, I recognize that the people most likely to die with COVID-19 are the elderly, especially those with comorbidities. Let’s face it—age is a comorbidity all by itself.
I have observed over my 40-plus years of ministry that the people who have prayed the most faithfully, given the most generously, attended the most regularly, and written the most inspiringly have been older people. People who have lived through the Great Depression, two world wars, enemy occupations, and countless other hardships. People who appreciate the simple, small things in life because many times that’s all they’ve had. People who understand that “prayer changes things” is more than a cliché on the wall. People who know how far a dollar can go if one heads it in the right direction. People who understand that agreement is not the same as commitment. These have been faithful people, and they are “[vanishing} from among the children of men.”
That is not to say this is the only period in history where faithfulness is in short supply—David bemoaned the dearth of faithful people in his day. Nor is it true that older people are the only faithful ones out there. It is to say that as they depart this earth, with or without COVID-19, somebody needs to replace them.
Will you?
Image from pickypeaches.com
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