Death of a loved one, of a friend, of an acquaintance, evokes sadness, grief.  I know, I have lived such a death—it wrenches the very gut from the bowels of life. 

Death by the thousands evokes what?  A glimpse and then you move on?  No feeling, no grief, no memory, no concern.  

The coronavirus has caused nearly a half-million deaths world-wide this year but has not touched me.  I don’t know anyone who has died, no one that has even tested positive.  In my world the number of deaths caused by the virus is less than the number suicides.  Its main target is old people so I have little fear—in my world.  Oh, we take precautions, staying at home most of the time and when we go out we wear masks and social distance as prescribed.  But we are not overly concerned.

A half-million lives lost in 5 months!  A lot of people. Three times the number of people living in Fullerton.  That would fill the Los Angeles Coliseum 5 times.  At this rate it would be equivalent to the entire population of Orange County in three years!  To date, 267 have succumbed to the coronavirus in Orange County.  Ho Hum. I am not one.  

Cavalier of me.  

A glimpse of deaths worldwide since the beginning of this year: half-million caused by malaria, another half-million by suicide, a quarter-million by seasonal flu, eight hundred thousand by HIV/AIDS, over a million by alcohol, over 2 million by smoking, on and on.  20 million abortions.  That is 20 million abortions.  

Too many to feel, to grieve, to be concerned.  

There is no comparison between the death of a loved one and a number.  

Acknowledge them as children of God,  pray for them:  See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  1 John 3:1

(Worldometer statistics as of June, 2020 — the world population is nearly 8 billion and increasing by 1 million every 10 days.)