On our guest post today we read the perspective of a mother dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Karen Muiruri shares her experience as she follows the preventive precautions while trusting God who is ultimately able to protect us. 

“Don’t put that in your mouth!” I sternly cautioned my 3-year-old daughter. You see, after the news of Patient 001 of COVID-19 broke in Kenya, and all schools subsequently being shut, my protective motherhood instincts shot up to 200%. The weeks that ensued were, to say the least, torturous for my family. Endless commands to “wash your hands”, ”don’t touch that”, and “stay away from strangers” characterized my home. The daily news and press conferences didn’t help either, with each day seeming to bear more bad news. One evening when we were doing our family devotions, my husband shared God’s word from Psalm 121 which says;

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” 

Right there I started seeing how my recent actions were evidence of my anxiety of my family contracting the virus. At the time, I thought, “A girl has got to do what a girl’s got to do for her family; wash hands, sanitize, stay away from people, and everything the WHO campaign against COVID 19 says we should do.” I had missed the point. It is upon the reading of Psalm 121 (one of my favorite passages of Scripture), that I realized my confidence in protecting my family was based on my feeble physical efforts and not on the Lord’s protection. Yes, I will still ensure that as a family, we maintain the highest hygiene standards possible, knowing that no efforts of man can fully protect us, but it is the Lord who will keep us. He is our keeper. As His child, I know this because His Word tells me so, and “The word of the Lord remains forever.” 1 Peter 1:25

The Lord has enabled me to use this season to teach my children about the sovereignty of our Lord amidst this global crisis. To remind them that when all is said and done it will not matter whether they had good grades, whether they went to the best schools, how many friends they had and whatnot. The only thing that will matter is whether they had a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what the Lord through the Holy Spirit has convicted me to address through the current pandemic in my home. We pray more, we read the word of God together and we spend more quality time together as a family. My soul is at peace, Psalm 62;1 reminds me “for God alone my soul waits in silence.” I wait in silence for the Lord, praying together with the saints across the world that surely the Lord is working out all things for our good.

For the Christians out there, my encouragement to you is through Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” For those who do not yet know the Lord Jesus Christ, I implore you to turn to Christ for the salvation of your souls with the famous words of John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Let us then turn to Jesus Christ, He is our only sure and steady anchor in this perilous season and all the seasons of our lives. This anchor shall never be removed. Amen!