pandemic pandemonium

Swine flu seems to be on the wane.  It seemed to be a disease that truly was on the verge of an epidemic disease that could spread across a broad area (the definition of a "pandemic").  The World Health Organization (WHO) is still giving the disease a great deal of respect with a Phase 5 danger rating (out of 6).  While the disease seems to have started in Mexico, it has spread to a number of countries around the world and there have been about a score of fatalities.  It struck me that a physical disease, like this, poses a danger to human life that doesn't respect borders and that doesn't have a political or ideological origin.  It's interesting to see how governments that might normally find little to agree about can band together to face a common threat.  I thought about another "disease" that crosses borders and that comes from an source beyond the politics and ideology of men.  This disease is the greatest pandemic mankind has ever faced and it resurfaces with every new generation.  No inoculation, diet or quarantine has ever stalled it and, for some reason, the obvious cure has only been embraced by a fraction of those who are suffering.  The disease of sin is often denied as a malady but, undeniably, it is the crisis most discussed in the Bible with a solution clearly identified in the person of Jesus (the real WHO...Wonderful Holy One).   Psalm 41: 4 I said, "LORD, be merciful to me;          Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You."   blessings, Rob Smith