There’s a phrase we’ve gotten way too used to saying lately: “pre-existing health conditions.” I know the medical purpose behind that phrase. There are underlying health conditions that make a person more susceptible to the coronavirus. I wonder, however, if that phrase isn’t teaching us to cheapen life. As if as long as someone was old anyway, their death doesn’t matter so much, right? As if as long as someone is overweight or has diabetes or has had lung cancer, they are going to die soon anyway, aren’t they? As long as the only people who are affected by the virus are those with “pre-existing health conditions,” it’s not that big a deal. Do you hear that attitude? “They will just die soon anyway.” How heartless we are!
I know a lady whose cousin recently died from COVID-19. Should I tell her, “Your cousin was already almost 60, she was going to die soon anyway”? Should I say, “Your cousin had some pre-existing medical conditions, so her death shouldn’t hurt too much”? Should I say, “You’ve got lots of other cousins. This is no big deal”? No way. Every life matters. Every death hurts. That lady told me, “The pain is so great.”
In a world that cheapens life, know who really cares? Jesus. Every one of us has the worst “pre-existing health condition” of all—sin. Sin is incurable on our own. Jesus had every reason to leave us for dead, but he didn’t. He came and died for us—for every single one of us. From the newborn to the aged. Your life matters to Jesus, because every single life matters to Jesus. Old or young, healthy or not so healthy, every person is a person whom Jesus died to forgive. We can care about them too, can’t we?
Here’s the apostle John’s encouragement: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:7-11). Dear friends, since God so loved us, let’s love and care for one another!
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