The vaccine is on its way! Thank You, heavenly Father.
Although God’s being is hidden in mystery, He invites us to come to Him as children to their Father. This is not just a comparison to children; God truly is our Father. “He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). The vaccines discovered and distributed by so many gifted and hard-working people are ultimately from our Father to His children. “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14).
Abraham Heschel was a Jewish philosopher and theologian of the 20th century. What he writes about a loaf of bread is also true of vaccines. “Let us take a loaf of bread. It is the product of climate, soil and the work of the farmer, merchant and baker. If it were our intention to extol the forces that concurred in producing a loaf of bread, we would have to give praise to the sun and the rain, to the soil and to the intelligence of man. However, it is not these we praise before breaking bread. We say, ‘Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.’ Empirically speaking, would it not be more correct to give credit to the farmer, the merchant and the baker? …We go beyond the miracle of cultivation. We bless Him who makes possible both nature and civilization” (Between God and Man, 48-49).
We followers of Jesus also know that’s true, that it is God who “supplies seed to the sower and bread for food” (2 Corinthians 9:10). In like manner, we thank all those bringing us the sorely needed vaccines, but we know it is ultimately a mercy from our Father to us. “This,” says the Jewish philosopher, “is the essence of faith: even what appears to us as a natural necessity is an act of God” (49). When God sent us His Son, our brother and Lord, “saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick…” and “looked up to heaven and said a blessing.” (Matthew 14:14, 19). Thank You, heavenly Father for answering in so many ways our petition, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).
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