Jesus delivers us from our fear of death.
I once visited with a lady in her home who had polio during the terrible Rockford Polio epidemic in 1945. It was an awful time for Rockford. There were over 380 cases in Winnebago County alone. Over 30 people died that year, most of them children. This lady I visited missed a year of school and was separated many months from her parents. She told me what it was like to lay in her bed at the age of 14 asking God over and over again to allow her to live.
This was not the first I’ve heard of the Rockford polio epidemic. Another lady remembered her parents not allowing her to go to the end of World War II celebration in downtown Rockford because of the threat of polio. Administrators postponed the start of some schools. Here in Stillman Valley, nurses checked the temperature of children on a daily basis at others.
The polio epidemic gripped America. In Iowa, my wife’s father had polio. He survived, but lost the muscles in his stomach from the awful disease. Even President Roosevelt had polio and was crippled.
The worst of the Rockford polio epidemic was in 1945, over 60 years ago. Yet, people still remember it. I wonder how Northern Illinois would handle another such epidemic today. Are we prepared to deal with something that threatens our children and strikes fear in the hearts of every parent and grandparents?
The second chapter of Hebrews tells us that Christ became humanity to defeat Satan and deliver His people who would otherwise be held in slavery by their fear of death. Those who know Christ, need not fear a polio epidemic, or the swine flu or terrorism.
