“A king sits on a throne of justice, sifting out all sorts of evil with his glance.”
Proverbs 20:8 (ISV)
Everyone has their own opinion of whether Covid was good or bad for us, but I believe it was definitely used as a sifting process. A sifter catches unwanted particles and lets only the purified particles fall through. When flour is sifted, the clumps and impurities are caught in the sifter and the finer, pure flour is what comes through. God allowed things to be removed from our lives during Covid, so that we could turn our attention to what remained after the sifting. Jesus wasn’t referring to sifting flour when He told Peter he was about to be sifted. He was referring to sifting whole kernels of wheat, and that process involves an almost violent shaking. The shaking that separates the chaff from the wheat kernels, is a great shake up that sounds more like the Covid year, than the sifting of flour. Many people became frightened, angry, and confused, over Covid, even after the worst effects of it were behind us. Some people left church after the Covid years and never returned. Some may have left from fear of getting sick and some may have left because it gave them an excuse not to go to church. Others may have become angry, sad or depressed at the difficult circumstances that Covid brought into their lives, like lost jobs, troubled relationships, depression or lost loved ones. Some people can now look back and see hidden blessings during that year, which was my case.
For me the year before Covid was the most difficult year, because it was the year I was caring for my terminally ill husband and became a widow. Covid was a year of solitude and regathering of thoughts for me. I have only been writing meditations since 2020, and between my friends and myself, these meditations are now being sent to over thirty people a day. God removes some things, but then He adds new things to our lives. For me one of those new things was the passion to write. Many doors were closed to us during the Covid years, but God never closes one door without opening others. Some people discovered hidden talents, volunteered for charities, became caregivers, or launched personal businesses they never would have had the courage to do, if not for Covid. God opened many new doors as well as closing others, but everyone was sifted to some degree. During the sifting, Jesus has confidence in us and is available to help us through it. Each of us has had something different sifted out of our lives and removed, while a new blessing arose from the purifying and sifting. God opened many new doors for us. The scripture verse today says a king sits on His throne, sifting out all sorts of evil at a glance.
Some of the things that were shut down during Covid were meant to be removed because they represented impurities, but some things were shut down to make us hunger for more of what is pure and good. Let’s pursue what we truly hunger for deep within, all that is pure, good and pleasing to God.