There were two very haunting photographs as Covid-19 was killing thousands of people in New York City during the months of April and May: 1) the refrigerator trucks lined up outside New York hospitals to receive the great number of dead bodies, and, 2) the aerial pictures of the mass grave sites on Hart Island, in which many of the bodies of those who had died, many unknown and unnamed, were being buried.

There is an estimated 22,000 deaths from Covid-19 during the first two months of the pandemic in New York City. Sadly, this same scenario has been and is being played out in the cities of Chicago, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, and other major cities of the United States.

As tragic and as frightening as it may be to die alone and unknown, Psalm 139 reassures us that there is one who is present to us and knows our name, namely, the God who loved us into life.

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. (Psalm 139:13-16, NRSV)

The music is composed in the musical form, Variations on a Theme. A musical theme is stated, followed by nine variations on that theme. The variations represent the diversity of the number of people who have died from this pandemic. The final variation is in a major key as God welcomes home those who have died.