Open letter to Covid this Christmas
Well, as this year winds down, I could not help but wish that COVID 19 was a person so that I could write him a letter and tell him “Enough is enough”!
“Mr. COVID, from what I understand, you actually came into our lives last year about this time totally uninvited. We at least were not looking for you and certainly had we any knowledge of your existence or who you were, we would have fought you diligently at your very conception; but we did not and therefore could not.
However, now that you are here, we stand together as a people and as a world to serve notice on you that your days are numbered.
We are not weak, we are not foolish, and we are not irresolute. We have eventually defeated every enemy that has ever come up against us and indeed we have already made great gains at defeating you. Soon you will be in our past and there will no longer be any fear of your future recurrence.
So be warned Mr. COVID, you will soon be done, nada, toast, fried, buried and you will not be allowed to take any more of our ground. Know also that we refuse to surrender Christmas, especially Christmas to you! You have been a formidable enemy and we have never fought one exactly like you before. It is here at this Christmas where we draw a line in the sand and serve notice on you. Although you have taken many activities and many people we love from us, you will not take our Christmas! This is where we say, no more!
For most of us, you snuck in while we were looking forward during March’s springtime refreshing to the end of another winter season. You, however, like an evil spiritual army, had arrived much earlier spreading out all over the world in your microscopic dewdrops of death.
You quickly took down many of our elderly and medically fragile fellow citizens. You succeeded in doing what any enemy army does as you stole away our peace of mind, sending us down a path of discomfort and fear. You went on to steal millions and eventually billions of dollars as we began our battle against you; an enemy we knew was there but could not see.
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Masks or no masks, and what kind was the best? You succeeded in bringing confusion to the world in 2020 with the best scientists, doctors and health organizations divided regarding what should we all do to fight you. Do we dare go here do we dare go there? The next solution, which emerged was to shut everything down. Locking everything down seemed to be the only available weapon which could vanquish you. This last option caused many of us to lose sleep, as we worried about those we loved the most.
On top of it all, affecting almost everyone was the fact that you, Mr. COVID, took away so many of our jobs. Regardless of the fact that many of us were untouched by the disease itself, we were still not allowed to work to support our families. Most of the government aid, which was hurriedly put into place to provide immediate relief, only lasted a short while. Many of us were forced to go back on unemployment.
While we were grateful for that safety net, for many it was much less than our normal income. During other seasons of financial strain, a majority of us had been able to find side work to fill in the void. But during this war, during these battles against you Mr. COVID, you even succeeded in routing that cushion. For many of us the gifts we give this Christmas will be small.
Most of us have long since moved on past the thoughts of what are we going to get for Christmas. However, when you threatened to take away what we can give for Christmas, you pulled on the tail of a mountain lion. You stuck your hand in a hornet’s nest; you tried to steal the cubs of a mother bear.
Mr. COVID that’s where you made your gravest mistake! You tried to take away our liberty to live and to give. You tried to defeat our most sacred time of the year! No Mr. COVID you cannot have our Christmas!
It is true Mr. COVID that you have won some battles. You have affected our children. As often happens during times of war, they have not been able to spend time with their friends, enjoying sports and games together. These things you have caused, but our Christmas you cannot have.
You see Mr. COVID what you fail to realize is that Christmas is something we refuse to let you steal. Christmas is not biological. It cannot be attacked from within with a microscopic virus. It is not something that can be stopped with the lack of money. It is not just a sentimental tradition, which has to have everything just right to have any meaning. It is something much more; it is the very hope of Heaven enshrined in our hearts.
You see the songs we sing, the even tiniest gifts we give, and the love that fills our hearts during our Christmas season are well-guarded bastions which you cannot touch. Our Christmas cannot be taken away. Our Christmas has survived world wars, famines and even plagues similar to you.
Christmas is our one season of hope each year. Our Christmas is invincible because it has its’ foundation in the greatest gift that was ever given by any one at any time in the entire history of the universe.
This Christmas gift is the gift of eternal life, given to us by our Heavenly Father. His gift to us was His only Son, Jesus Christ, so that we can know our Father God! So we keep on singing and Christmas is still ours! We win and you lose, Mr. COVID, and our Christmas’s live on.
Rev Nolan J Harkness is the President and CEO of Nolan Harkness Evangelistic Ministries Inc. since 1985. He spent most of his adult life working in youth ministry. He also felt the calling of Evangelist/Revivalist and traveled as the door was open holding evangelistic meetings in churches throughout the Northeast. His website is www.verticalsound.org.
