GN Commentary: April 30, 2009 - Swine Flu Turns Deadly in the U.S.

Real comfort must come from knowing that a better day is approaching when Jesus Christ will return with the real answers for the world's problems. The Bible speaks of a place where death, tragedy and disease will be no more.

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Video Transcript

He was not yet two years of age, far from home and dying. He has been named the first victim of swine flu on U.S. soil. He died Monday evening in a Houston hospital even though his home was a thousand miles away in Mexico City. His case is on the front page of every newspaper, but we don't even know his name.

He died in Children's Hospital in Houston, a premier hospital for childhood diseases in the United States. As a Church pastor in Houston for almost 20 years I am very familiar with Children's Hospital.

But what do we really know about this first victim of the swine flu?  We know that this young boy crossed the U.S./Mexican border on April 4 with his family to visit friends and relatives in Brownsville, TX. Four days later he became ill and on April 13 he was taken to a hospital in Brownsville.   The following day he was transferred to Children's Hospital in Houston in an effort to save his life. Even with the most sophisticated equipment and the best doctors in the world, he died on Monday evening, just before reaching his second birthday.

No one knows how serious this epidemic will become. But for this family from Mexico City it can't get any worse. It has already claimed the life of their precious little boy. How do you comfort the parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and siblings?

It will not be easy, but real comfort must come from knowing that a better day is approaching when Jesus Christ will return with the real answers for the world's problems. The Bible speaks of a place where death, tragedy and disease will be no more. And you may be surprised to hear that it isn't a fantasy place called heaven. The apostle John describes this perfect world in Revelation 21:4 "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain…"   Can you imagine such a place? 

Upon reading the story of this child dying in a hospital, frightened and far from home, I thought about this verse. In that perfect world there will be no headlines about a 23 month old toddler, whose name we will never know, dying from a strange disease called swine flu. That's the comforting part of this story!  That's the good news!

For GN magazine, I'm Jim Franks.