Crowds at Cheltenham
One year ago the Cheltenham Festival attracted over 250,000 visitors. No spectators were social distancing and no-one was wearing a mask.
One year ago, just before the Festival, the World Health Organisation pronounced a global pandemic.
One year ago people said that masks were not essential.
One year ago Donald Trump declared, "The virus will not have a chance against us," and "No nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States."
One year ago, in April, scientists in Oxford began human trials on a new vaccine and within one year had produced a safe one. Normally it takes 10-15 years, and even the fastest previous one (mumps 1967) had taken four years to produce.
One year ago many churches ceased to meet in person and began meeting online.
Here are a few musings about the last year, from a Christian point of view....
A Christian View of the Last Year
Human Prediction is Poor, so no-one could have known
A few years ago I read the final authoritative commision report on the 9/11 terror attack. Everyone was feeling bad - the CIA and FBI especially - for having not predicted it or prevented it. The report, however, largely exonerates them because this was a situation no-one had faced before, and fortunately no-one had imagined. Planes deliberately flown into buildings?
And so when intelligence heard that some guys were learning how to fly airplanes in flight simulators but showed no interest in how to land them, it seemed a little odd, yes, but no-one guessed or predicted the reason for their disinterest in landing, that is, they were not planning to land the airplanes.
We cannot predict the future. We can make guesses, and educated ones are better than uneducated ones, but no-one could have predicted the nature of this global pandemic.
So no-one can be blamed for sincere decisions that turned out to be sincerely wrong because they could not predict the future.
By contrast God knows all future things, because he controls all future things. God is never taken by surprise, but we are.
Human Knowledge is so limited
On the day of 9/11 George Bush Junior grounded all US aircraft. That was understandable, because he did not know what was going on in the USA at that very moment. If he had known that there were only four planes with terrorists aboard, he would not have taken that drastic action. 'The fog of war' is an apt analogy. Without enough intelligence no-one can know what to do and our decisions are bound to be faulty. It can't be helped.
If our governements had known exactly what was going on around the world, in every single human body in the world, if they had been able to track the location of every virus particle, they would, no doubt have acted much faster and much differently. But they didn't - and couldn't.
God, by contrast, knows not only all things future, he knows all things present. So none of his wise ways are faulty.
Human Ingenuity is great
Work on the Covid vaccine which took only ten months to complete began long before last year. The Jenner institute in Oxford, named after the scientist who performed the first vaccination in 1796 had been developing a strategy of how to defeat an unknown enemy, Disease X. They hadn't completed the strategy but had made good progress. So when Covid 19 arose, there was a pre-made plan as to how it could be defeated.
Lots of money was thrown at the project and well within a year a safe vaccine had been developed.
Because we've been made in God's creative image, mankind had the ability to work out how to preoduce a vaccine and vaccinate against the virus.
Thankfulness
I believe we should be very thankful for those in authority over us. They may not have made the right decisions all the time, but they did their human best.
We should thank God for the remarkable vaccines which we pray will make a difference in the days to come.
But, unlike the world, we should put all our trust in the Lord. God does use means - clever scientists, wise politicians - but ultimately every good gift comes down from God. And so we should acknowledge him and be thankful to him.
We should learn to trust him who knows all things, not only about the world, but about us too. And not only does he know about us, he also cares for us. He cares about every sparrow that falls to the ground, and he cares about us too.
A SONG FOR THE DAY
Our song for the day reminds us that God made everything in his beautiful world and made us too. And that he made us to be worshippers.
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
'Twas God that made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing color,
He made their tiny wings.
The purple headed mountains,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning
That brightens up the sky.
The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.
He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell,
How great is the Almighty,
Who has made all things well.
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our all-knowing Father in heaven,
We thank you for the simple gifts of life. We thank you for houses and food and the very air we breathe. Teach us to be thankful people.
We thank you for your gifts of salvation, for justification, redemption, forgiveness and sanctification.
We thank you for those in authority over us and pray that you would guide them in these testing times.
We pray for all our brothers and sisters,
In Jesus' Name,
Amen
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