Why did my wife go down with the Covid-19 virus? Isolated for fifteen days, initially with a high viral count? Why did God allow this to happen? Such thoughts rankled in me.
A few days before the virus attack, a young friend from another faith had rung me up, “Uncle, God has blessed you and family for what you are! He has given you everything anybody could desire, a good family, and all the comforts you need! All because you are a good man!”
I shudder inside, when anybody calls me ‘good’ but I wondered later what his reaction would have been when he realized that the ‘good’ man’s family had been attacked. Was he thinking, ‘maybe God knew something I didn’t know about Bob, hmm!” or maybe, “Is God really protecting His own?”
The former was my thought when I realized that the deadly virus had infiltrated my home, “How God, did you allow this to happen?”
“What happened to all the prayers of protection we made?”
“What happened to my so called ‘good’ deeds that the youngster was talking about, God?”
“Where were your guardian angels when the virus crept into our home?”
Many such questions troubled me, as my wife was sent into isolation, and our home was partitioned, “Where were you God?”
And then my mind went back to a book I had to study, during my MA in English Literature, the book of Job, one of the oldest books of the Bible. Job, is a good man, who loved and served God, and God blesses him with great prosperity, and he in turn serves God even more.
Suddenly, the story takes a twist, Satan comes to God and says, “Job fears you, but not without good reason. You have always protected him and his home and property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is. But take away everything he has and he will surely curse you to your face!”
And God says, “Do whatever you want with him, but don’t harm him physically!”
And Satan does that. Job loses everything, but not his faith! In other words, God made Job, a showpiece for Satan to test.
Is God making you a showpiece? Maybe it’s not a wife down with Covid-19, maybe worse: A death! A loss of job! A broken relationship! Are you questioning God like I did?
But as the Professor in MCC my old college, drones on from the Book of Job, can you hear God telling the evil one with total confidence in our faith, “Consider my servant, Bob, or John or Vinay or Victor?”
And will you whisper with me, “Lord, thank you..!”
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
