Unsung Heroes

Ian Cruikshanks

Recently I heard a report on the news in which COVID-19 was compared to the Spanish flu that infected 500 million people and killed somewhere between 17 to 50 million people. That outbreak lasted from January 1918 to December 1920.

Another report, specifically concerning my home province of Ontario, also included some grim numbers as scientists and health experts looked forward to what could be the best and worst case scenarios when it comes to COVID-19.

It was food for thought.

But my thoughts did not turn to long-term isolation or protective gear or shortages or economic downturns. They went back to the history of my home church, First Baptist in Timmins, Ontario. It's connection to the 1918 pandemic is significant.

In 1917 and 1918, a young man by the name of Ian Cruikshanks travelled back and forth from Toronto to Timmins on the train. His mission was to bring the Gospel to the miners and loggers of a community rising out of the woods, lakes, and rocks of Northern Ontario.  But before he could see the results of those efforts Cruikshanks died, a victim of complications from the flu. 

I doubt that too many hailed him as a hero, but I certainly would.

Because Cruikshanks went to Timmins, a church was birthed. In 1922 First Baptist Church came into being. I have in my possession the small glass plate that held the bread for the church's first celebration of the Lord's Supper. Because Cruikshanks sacrificed himself to bring the Good News of Jesus to a bunch of rough, tough miners and loggers, I had the opportunity to come to faith—as have so many others before and after me.

On the eve of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, I remember the sacrifice of Another. In the concerns of 2020, even believers will have a difficult time turning their thoughts away from their new, virus-inspired reality to think about Jesus. Our connections to faith are often so attached to buildings, events, and spiritual leaders. Without these  prompts, these "crutches", we are perhaps  discovering just how weak our "practice of the presence of God", as Brother Lawrence once said, actually is. That lowly lay brother knew isolation and poverty, but immense joy and peace as well.

"The difficulties of life do not have to be unbearable. It is the way we look at them—through faith or unbelief—that makes them seem so. We must be convinced that our Father is full of love for us and that He only permits trials to come our way for our own good.

Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in time of distress or in times of great joy."

We will likely celebrate this Resurrection season in relative isolation because of COVID-19. But nothing happens by accident and perhaps this is the time to "practice the presence of God" in a new way, perhaps even a better way, as we reconnect personally and privately with the One who set His face toward a cross and became that once-and-for-all sacrifice that provided the way for us to become part of the family of faith.