My thoughts about the Pandemic

By the Revd John Hickling  
 

We may well ask Where is God in all this pandemic? The question posits the ideas (1) The very existence of God; (2) That God is expected to be implicated in what is happening to the human race; (3) What has the evil and power of the destroying influences in Creation to say to us?

The short answer to where is God in all this is God is where the Creator of this entire Creation should be, at the very centre to the circumference of all including our daily life, habits and actions. God is the name we use, and Christians use, taught by our Lord Jesus Christ as Lord, and Father.

The American author and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote,

Lord of all being throned afar, Thy glory flames from sun and star;

 Centre and soul of every sphere, yet to each loving heart how near.

In a way not as evident as at this time, since World War Two, peoples, countries, nations are coming together in a common cause. Many sources of human endeavour, personal and corporate, are brought together in cities, towns, villages and streets, families and personally to help each other.

The brave people on the front lines are rendering great service with bravery, some paying the ultimate price, and we clap their efforts and acknowledge their sacrifices in a Gesture of National Silence.

Beaulah and I have received numerous offers of support and help from church friends, neighbours and others. In suchlike sacrificial deeds of so many throughout the nations I am certain the God we Christians believe in is manifestly active, not just hanging about in belief systems or even believers' hearts. Creation in the processes of its renewal can be red in tooth and claw.

It is the same in human life as part of that creation and renewal. As a human family we are learning to be aware of one another in a new way and assist each other. We must go on to be more aware of our need to care for the Creation for it is not ours to own but to take care of as stewards. Creation may be our playground, it is NOT our plaything. 

I shall rejoice with many another when our places of worship reopen. We miss the value of corporate worship of God in thanksgiving and prayers. The coming together physically is in itself a blessing, reminding us of who we are and to whom we belong, for as we are not our own we are bought with a price. Not less than the presence of God Himself, manifest to us in Our Lord Jesus Christ.