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Christmas and COVID-19

     Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:11-14)

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

          ’Tis the day before Christmas. My decorations have been up, and I’ve been listening to wonderful Christmas music for nearly a month, but I haven’t been writing Christmasy blog posts. It’s almost as if I’ve been saying “Bah! Humbug!” It’s not that – it’s the fact that I can’t think of anything to say about Christmas that hasn’t been said a thousand times in the past ten days.

          But this Christmas is different from any Christmas we’ve ever had, and I hope it’s different from any Christmas we’ll ever have again. I’ve long believed that viruses are excellent illustrations of evil or sin. And a virus reigns over the world, bringing physical death to some, but fear and tribulation to many more. Just as sin and evil do. Man comes up with masks and social distancing – the religion of the pandemic, but they don’t save.

          Now, the vaccine provides a chance at a sort of salvation. Historically, vaccines were made by using the blood of someone who caught the illness and survived. The parallel with Christ’s death and resurrection isn’t exact, but it’s just really hard to bring someone who has died of a virus back to life. That’s miraculous. So, we get as close as we can.

In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, there’s a slightly different parallel. The scientists aren’t using blood. They are using the stem cell line, HEK-293. The stem cells came from a person aborted in the Netherlands in the 1960s. HEK-293’s life was taken from him violently. The  COVID-19 vaccine produced from his stem cells may save us from a virus.[1] And Jesus’s death and resurrection saves us from our sins.

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