Tom Hanks wants to create a ‘Hank-ccine’ for coronavirus: Trusting God’s sovereign love with our needs

Tom Hanks says the blood he and his wife, Rita Wilson, donated after recovering from coronavirus should go toward a “Hank-ccine.” He and his wife also hope to donate plasma to COVID-19 patients.

They were the first celebrities
to test positive for a disease that has now infected more than three million
people and killed more than two hundred thousand. Their illness is a reminder
that this virus knows no status and is restricted to no social class.

Their story came to mind when I
read Isaiah 24 recently and found this description of God’s judgment: “And
it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with
his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with
the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so
with the debtor. The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for
the LORD has spoken this word” (vv. 2–3).

I do not read these verses as
predicting the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, interpreters typically consider
them to be apocalyptic descriptions of the end of history and God’s judgment
against sinful humanity.

But I did notice the degree to
which such judgment will be administered equally, from people to priest, from
slave to master, from buyer to seller. This fact shows that God’s sovereignty
transcends every division and classification of human history. He is truly Lord
over all.

Trusting God’s sovereign love with our needs

There is another side to this principle:
just as God can judge all who sin, he can pardon all who seek his forgiving
grace (1 John 1:9). Just as he can punish all who transgress, he can forgive
all who repent.

Jesus encountered no illness he could not cure, no need he could not meet, no leper he could not cleanse, no corpse he could not raise.

In other words, our God is more
than able to…