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Covid19 & David’s Courage
Covid19 is an Angel of Death.
This plague tests our resolve and tests who we are as individuals and as a community.
We need the courage to fight this plague. We must find the correct balance between our health and our economy.
I am reminded of Psalm 23 – A psalm of David.
The virus also tests our leaders!
How do they react? What are their guidelines? Do they take advice from experts? Are they considerate and compassionate of others who are in distress? What courage do they possess?
We question what is needed to see us through this fearful time with so much death and sadness around the world and as the elderly die alone while family members look on struggling with their grief.
Politicians talk of grandparents giving up their lives for the economy and medical officers use grim words such as “harvesting”. But as Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, succinctly said: “My mother is not expendable and your mother is not expendable.”
The image of the Shepard and his flock is an ancient one and calls to mind a scene of grass and hillsides as well as a kind gentle hand, however, that is often not the case.
David’s time in the hill country was full of solitude and reflection, but there was something much more sinister at play. His father, Jessie, did not believe the boy to be his and therefore sent him to guard the sheep among the lions and bears that roamed the area.
David was expendable!
Excerpt from The Leper Messiah:
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The cry of a lamb caught Davids’ attention and he saw the frightened animal caught in a thicket. Its shrill bleating caused the other sheep to move away far up the hillside.
David took out his knife and cut the thick branches away while the animal kicked and screamed. He firmly grasped the lamb and carried over the branches and to safety.
The lean, young boy sat down and drank from his animal skin before returning to his darker thoughts.
“I am the king of the goats,” he yelled out in the wind, “King of the sheep and goats.”
In troubled times often words are not enough, and actions are needed to protect and soothe those who are not as strong. A combination of strength and compassion is needed.
We now live in a troubled time. What instruction, if any, could David provide for us now?
Davids’ instincts were to both protect others and he did it through his courage.
Excerpt from The Leper Messiah:
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Shimea was standing in place, his body shaking.
The beast sat in the rough brush behind the pools waiting and watching. His eyes were yellow and deadly. His muscles bulged with every slight movement. Grace and death licked its’ lips and yawned in the noonday sun, almost too lazy to strike.
“My brother, my brother, I must protect him,” David said as his heart beat heavily.
He quickly took out his stones and found the largest ones. He slowed his breathing and laid flat on his stomach to get a better view of the beast.
David held his breath and exhaled as his stone found the forehead of the lion.
A loud, angry roar rang over the quarry rocks.
We need Davids’ courage and compassion to defeat the Covid19.
Robert