"Virus Hand Grenades" (Isaiah 1:18)

If you enter a public restroom, instead of a paper towel dispenser, one may find an air-powered hand drier. These devices come in a variety of shapes made by different manufacturers. Some are simple warm air dryers while others are termed “jet-air dryers” which blow a highly concentrated stream of air. All tout the idea that drying one’s hands by air is more hygienic than using paper or cloth towels.

Scientists, specifically microbiologists, have now determined that some of these air-powered hand driers may have the potential to spread disease. Placing a harmless virus MS2 on their gloved hands, scientists proceeded to dry their hands using paper towels, a warm air dryer, and jet-air dryer. Cultures were taken from around the devices at different heights and distances and also from the air around the devices. The results were surprising. The jet-air dryers could disperse the virus up to nine feet away while the paper towels dispersed viruses to a mere ten inches. One researcher concluded that the jet-air hand dryers were becoming a potential “virus hand grenade”!

The bottom line, in spite of ever improving technology and inventions, we can never truly get rid of these harmful micro-organisms, and in fact, may be making our condition worse.

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)

Like these micro-organisms, there is an analogy with our sins. Try as we may, we can never truly eradicate our sins by our own efforts. Oh, we try. We read self-help books that “explain” to us that our sins are not wrong, simply genetically programmed behaviors. We may go to therapists or check ourselves into rehab centers, there is one for every possible vice imaginable. By availing of all these man-made solutions, thinking we are eradicating the problem, we are not dealing with the core problem of sin. We delude ourselves with a false sense of hope and security that we are successfully dealing with our sins. In reality, we may be creating our own “sin hand grenade”.

There is only one solution. We must come before God and confess and repent of our sins and turn to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Only He can remove our sins so that we can be as white as snow. No rehab centers, self-help books, or therapists can do it. Only He can eradicate our sin hand grenade!

Amen!

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.