I’m heartbroken because we have been praying for weeks now that we wouldn’t ever have to publish something like this in our COVID-19 coverage.

Yet today we must, because we owe it to our God to raise this tragic and precious reminder to the world that life is a short and fragile thing.

This morning (March 21), Singapore reported its first two deaths from COVID-19. The patients were a 75-year-old Singaporean woman linked to the Life Church and Missions Cluster, and a 64-year-old Indonesian man who came here for treatment. 

The woman, known as Case 90, had been battling the coronavirus for about a month. What really struck me was a sentence in an article that summed up her condition: “She had a history of chronic heart disease and hypertension.”

Every person in this world has a shot at knowing God.

Throw a stone and that could be any auntie or uncle down the street – it could easily have been any one of us. It could easily have been me lying there in the NCID.

It’s only by God’s grace that I have the privilege to draw breath and write this article.

That fact heightens my sense of urgency to use each word here to persuade and even beg you to think about your relationship with God. As I do not write this by chance, you’re not reading this by chance either. 

WINDOWS OF GRACE

Whenever I look at the numbers in the coronavirus counter, I force myself to remember that each one is a life. And yet there is mercy for each one. Every person in this world has a shot at knowing God, including you and I. 

And I force myself to remember that the fallenness of this sinful world manifests itself in broken things, which includes the deadly coronavirus creeping across the world. These all are signs that the end of all things draws near. 

We all live in windows of grace opened by God, and this window in your browser here is one of them.

It’s a fleeting moment we’re sharing. By the end, you will either tab out or come to the conviction that we actually are helpless sinners who need God’s forgiveness.

The coronavirus poses great danger to us. But greater is the danger of leaving this life without having known the one true God. You get to make a choice; I hope you will take my gentle and earnest words to heart.

For those of us who already believe in God, we must examine our walks with God more than ever. If He were to call us home today, would we be ready to meet Him?

And there surely will be fear and anxiety in the coming days – but we must be vessels of divine peace. This is our duty in the Great Commission and a way we can carry the gospel to our city.

Though we live in dark times, now is precisely when light shines the brightest. 

I suppose all that’s left to do now is to pray for the two people who have left us. Let us pray for their family, that they also may come to experience comfort and peace from the Most High God in this time of trouble.

Finally, let us pray for our nation and the world.