Failed Rescue

As I scroll the edge 

of my social media world, 

I find myself disheartened—

deluged by death. 

Pleading posts flood my feed: 

Family members, friends, 

begging for prayers 

for their family members, friends. 

I have heard their refusals—

the obstinate denial of science, 

the rejection of numbers, 

the clinging to crafted misinformation. 

Even now, 

facing the death of loved ones, 

they still bang out the rhetoric—

party lines, 

religious manifestos, 

despite the mountain of proof. 

And still, I pray. 

I hold to my faith in God. 

But something is intermingled: 

there is anger in my sadness. 

Why am I angry, you ask? 

Because I have listened 

to your inane declarations—

“It must be God’s will,” 

you say, 

when your loved ones die 

having refused rescue. 

There is a difference between 

what God knows will happen 

and what God wants to happen. 

His Word is clear:

It is not His will that any should perish, 

but that all should come to repentance. 

Still, the day of the Lord will come 

as a thief in the night. 

But until that day, 

God has sent remedies—

gifts among His people: 

measures to protect, 

wisdom to shield, 

science born of God-given knowledge. 

And yet His people refuse to see 

the abundance of His grace 

in the rescue offered 

by human hands He formed 

and minds He inspired. 

What glory has God 

in needless death? 

In believers and non-believers alike 

brought low? 

Even now— 

as the virus mutates, 

as hospitals fill again, 

as bodies fall daily in every nation—

still, they cling to the failed rhetoric, 

the banner of the failed rescue. 

“Faith over fear,” 

they cry, 

their voices enfeebled 

by lungs drowning in virus. 

I do not question God’s power, 

nor cast dispersion on His name. 

He is Jehovah Rapha—

the God who heals. 

He is miraculous. 

He is faithful. 

I believe in faith beyond fear. 

But I also believe 

in the many ways 

He works to protect His children. 

Some days, 

He comes in signs and wonders. 

Other days, 

He comes through healing hands. 

Still others, 

He comes through medicine—

the marvel of minds He made. 

None of these 

is less miraculous 

than the other. 

© Ron Simpson Jr.