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The Great Tribulation

100,000 deaths. 

Certainly this pandemic is a "great tribulation." Surely it is a time of great tribulation for the grieving, hospitalized, the health care workers, first responders, and other people on the front line. 

Comforting words and gestures for the grieving are greatly needed. Comforting words coming out of our own experience of loss and the emotions accompanying them. 

Words of hope from the Bible are also needed to bring comfort. These, for example, from the Book of Revelation:
 
"After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
Therefore,
“they are before the throne of God
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
    will shelter them with his presence.
16 ‘Never again will they hunger;
    never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,
    nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne
    will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
    ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
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