I learned a whole bunch of things during the shelter-in-place mandate that lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Some things were trivial, like you can make confectioner’s sugar in the blender and use baking soda to whiten your teeth.
More importantly, I discovered the more I peered into the future, the more I fretted. Would the virus outbreak worsen in the winter? When will a vaccine be available?
All unanswerable questions, unless one has the ability to predict the future. Still, these questions bring suffering, because we long to control everything. And because tomorrow is by its very nature mysterious, our yearning is bound to be frustrated.
If someone had told me a year ago that churches would be closed for months and people would be wearing masks, I would’ve wondered how much they’d had to drink. Still, this is the reality we inhabit.
It’s an illusion to believe the future is in our hands. We sometimes forget our lives come from God and he remains in control of them. The rising and setting of the sun, the progression of the seasons, the rain and wind are all in God’s hands.
Still, human beings rush to control many things. We have pest control for our climate-controlled houses and cruise control in our cars. Scientists produce pills to control appetite and cholesterol.
To gain a sense of security, we order our environments, placing towels in the linen closet and prescription drugs in the medicine cabinet. We set times for breakfast, lunch and dinner, since routines offer a comforting and predictable existence.
But then comes something like the coronavirus, and suddenly our routines were thoroughly upended. Ordinary activities like going to work, attending church, eating in restaurants and watching sporting events became a thing of the past.
Still, when so much is shaken up, unsettled and unpredictable, we have a rare opportunity to grow closer to God.
We are suddenly stripped of our smug assurance that we’re controlling the trajectories of our lives. I don’t know about you, but I’m not aware of choosing to keep my heart beating, while I sleep.
I don’t recall deciding I would grow to five feet, three inches, nor do I remember engineering my development in my mother’s womb.
God is in control of everything. Scripture tells us he sees the sparrow fall and knows the number of hairs on our heads.
Sadly, some people are so convinced there’s no one at the helm that they fear bringing children into this flawed world. Yes, our world is broken, but it’s also a place of love, serenity and joy.
From the beginning of time, people have wrung their hands over the evil in the world. But they have also raised their hearts to God to thank him for giving them life.
We’re not at the helm and we never were. We didn’t choose to be born and we don’t know when we will die. Everything is part of God’s mysterious, but perfect plan.
The biggest lesson of the coronavirus can be summed up by a poster in a high school theology class. “There is a God — and you’re not him.”
Lorraine’s email address is lorrainevmurray@yahoo.com
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