The streets got empty. Roads, airports and temples shut down. The earth was melancholic.

By Nikki Karitas
The street was loud. A deafening noise ripped up and down the city blocks. The forever sounds of derisive hoots cut the thick air and no elbow gave you a 5 seconds chance to stand still. And suddenly, gone were the days. The timely shadow of silence that swallowed up the world at the moment was unbearable! The streets got empty. Roads, airports and temples shut down. The earth was melancholic. The wind was slowly blowing everyone to a dead end!

The sun looked gloomy. There was certainly, for those who were attentive, silence in heaven. Something profoundly spiritual was happening and a few could see it. The reverent silence. God was speaking. Pandemic was speaking. Terror was speaking. Pain was speaking. Panic was speaking! Many were allegedly dying from COVID-19 but there were other, far worse viruses killing thousands every day; famine, injustice, hatred, disillusionment!

We did not know what was happening. Some of us were optimistic, others were not. We did not know if we were dealing with a biological weapon. We did not know if any country developed this chaos for its own benefit. Nobody knew if this was a consequence of man’s own intervention in nature. Maybe it was a punishment from God. Maybe it was a conspiracy theory. Maybe we were living in the apocalypse or maybe it is the bitter pill to swallow, the indisputable truth: THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END.

Regardless of the different ways of thinking, this pause from God came in a timely manner. Humanity is chronically out of control. Mankind has no time to reflect on itself, neither to watch out for one another. Not even their families. Individualism has gone beyond ‘every man for himself and God for us all’. It feels as though God has locked each of us in our own shells to think about how we have been living.

In few short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. The stadiums, civic centers, theatres and greatest root of all evil, the economy has collapsed. People are staying indoors, reading books, resting and exercising. People are making art and playing. Others are learning new ways of living while some have stopped. Some are meditating, some are praying and some have begun to think differently and reason logically. Some have met their shadows and some have listened deeply.

Maybe people will be healed. And the earth will begin to heal. Maybe danger will end and people will find each other, grieve the dead, create new ways of life and make new choices. Maybe God will completely heal the people and revive the world. Maybe 2 Chronicles 7:14 will come true. ‘’If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land’’.

Maybe we not only need the vaccine, but we need is to take this time of isolation from the distractions of this world and have a personal revival where we focus on the only thing in the world that really matters. Jesus. Maybe we should take an opportunity in the midst of this plague to put our own lives in order. To review our concepts, our values and bring new meaning to our own existence. May each one of us take up this chaos and use it as a moment to reflect on our actions. Let us bend on our knees and ask God to have compassion on the world, just one more time. Dear God, our fingers are crossed, heal the world.