Perhaps I’m in the minority but there hasn’t been much good news I’ve come across during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been mostly doom and gloom, whether in digital, printed or broadcast forms, that is until today. My spirit was so buoyed by it that I have to share it with you! It’s about how COVID-19 reunite two sisters after not seeing each other in more than 50 years!
Back in May, Doris Crippen, age seventy-three, was diagnosed with COVID-19 and became a patient at a rehabilitation centre in Nebraska after being hospitalised for more than a month. Bev Boro, a medication aide, who has worked at the facility for more than two decades, happened to be looking over her patient list, when her mouth opened wide in amazement. She was reacting to a name: Doris Crippen.
“I kept saying, ‘Oh my God,’” said Bev, 53. “That must be her”.
Even though both of them grew up in Nebraska and knew each other’s names, the two have not seen each other in more than fifty years after spending years searching for each other without success.
The two share the same father but were born to different mothers. Their father had been married three times and had 10 children. Doris is the oldest and Boro is the youngest. Doris was raised by her mother and stepfather and was twenty years old when she last saw Bev. Bev unfortunately entered the foster care system when she was only six months old and put up for adoption.
Despite the suffering Doris has endured, she told a reporter, “I am the happiest person in the world. I cannot believe I finally found my sister.” Bev’s son added, “It’s crazy how without covid-19, they never would have met”. Doris’s path to finding Bev has been fraught with pain. “But this here?”, she said, clutching her sister’s hand, “This makes up for everything”.
This most extraordinary story reminds me of the gospel. As barbaric and inhumane as the cross was, if Jesus had not bore it on our behalf, we would never have been reunited with God! His path to finding us has been most costly and painful but the unspeakable joy of finding us more than makes up for everything! “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross…Consider him…so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:2-3).
Coram Deo,
Mark
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