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The coronavirus is so called because it visibly resembles a crown (“corona” in Latin). A Crown is a symbol of power and authority— and certainly this virus has colossal power over us humans, It is invisible to the naked eye, and yet just think about what it has forced many millions— indeed, billions— of us to do and not do.

It also forcibly reminds us of our vulnerability. It is easy to forget that we humans are mortal. The coronavirus is evidence that both our relationship with creation and creation’s relationship with us are disordered; and that this is not an accident.

But hope is found in another corona: the crown of thorns that was forced on Jesus’ head at his trial before his execution.

That corona shows us just how deep the break between creature and Creator goes. Earth is God’s creation, not ours. We are not its owner, but we seek to be. We are only tenants and stewards, and flawed ones at that—many of us have made a mess of our lives and even of those of others, to say nothing about what we have done to the planet. There cannot be two paradises for humans: one in fellowship with God and one without him. The coronavirus is very rapidly demolishing the illusion that we can build perfection on earth—and turning our initially lackadaisical, even complacent response into real fear, frustration and anger.

In a fractured world, damaged through the consequences of human sin, pain and suffering are inevitable. Perhaps we had hidden from this reality until the coronavirus rampaged across the globe. Now we cannot ignore it, nor the big questions about life and death which it prompts, Here is C.S Lewis:

“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insist upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” [The Problem of Pain (Gepffrey Bles, 1940), p 81]

Perhaps the coronavirus might function as a huge loudspeaker, reminding us of the ultimate statistic: that on out of every on of us dies. If this induces us to look to the God we may have ignored for years, but who wore a crown of thorns in order to bring us back into relationship with himself and into a new, unfractured world beyond death, then the coronavirus, in spite of the havoc it has wreaked, will have served a very healthy purpose.   –John Lennox [Where is God in a Coronavirus World, excerpt from ch.5]

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.   Isaiah 55:6-7